


Brother I Never Had

by Are_you_ever_not_going_to_fall_for_that



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU Loki - Freeform, Asgard, BAMF Loki, Brotherly Affection, Brothers, Canonish Thor, Gen, Good Loki, King Thor, Magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-02-11 17:31:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 55,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2076852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Are_you_ever_not_going_to_fall_for_that/pseuds/Are_you_ever_not_going_to_fall_for_that
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor is king now and doing the best job he can. However when someone unexpected shows up in Asgard how will Thor react?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Avengers or Thor

Thor wished he could back to earth to see Jane but his father's health had failed and he had been in the long Odin's sleep for three months now. Thor was king and while before he had wanted to be king terribly he found that he no longer wished for it anymore. His father and mother were dead though, and Loki was insane and a fugitive. So it was up to him to lead his people even if he didn't want to.

Thor was having a hard time keeping his eyes open having just sat through a very boring council meeting that while he saw the point to them wished he did not have to attend them. Thor wondered if he had time for a short nap before going to the throne room to deal with the people in his court. Thor wasn't sure if he did but he trudged his way up the stairway that lead to his room regardless. Even if he couldn't sleep he could at least close his eyes until the time came that he needed to leave. His eyelids were growing slightly heavy but Thor had grown up in the castle so he did not need 100% of his eyes cooperation just to get to his room.

He blinked a few times as he found something in his way he paused since if he gave it enough time usually things in his way tended to moved out of it. After a moment however Thor's brain registered that the person wasn't facing him. Thor's eyes took in the back of the person and as they did so a surge of adrenaline chased the tiredness from his system leaving him alert and wary. He knew that outfit he knew it anywhere, he had seen it nearly everyday for about 1000 years. Loki was here in the castle.

"What are you doing here?" Thor barked angrily Loki hadn't even come back for their father's funeral and he was just standing there in the hall like it was an every day occurrence. It had to be a trick of some sort. Everything with Loki always seemed to be a trick of some sort. Loki turned around with a small frown in his face like he was honestly confused and maybe a little hurt at Thor's accusation. That sealed it there had to something going on even if Loki was hurt by something he said he would never show it.

"Thor I-" Loki started but Thor cut him off before he could spin another web of lies.

"What are you doing here?!" Thor demanded again and Loki looked annoyed.

"I was just about to tell you what's got your knickers in a twist?" Thor's frown deepened Loki hadn't spoken like that to him since before Thor's failed first coronation. There was something wrong with the situation, something that he couldn't put his finger on. It had to be a trick of some sort but of what kind he wasn't sure of. Loki had always been the smarter of the two of them and Loki had often found it amusing to confuse him. Surely Loki wouldn't walk in Asgard just to tease him not when he knew that only a cell awaited his return? However Loki continued.

"I can't seem to find my lab." Loki said his eyes darted this way and that and he looked confused, but Thor was pretty sure of the two of them it was Thor who was much more confused..

"Lab?" he asked faintly. Was this all part of Loki's new game. His new plan? Thor didn't understand how it might benefit him and he was also starting to grow angry again because that surely must be the point of this game to make him angry.

"Yes my lab I thought it was up there but I went there and it's a bedroom." he said sounded puzzled. Thor didn't know what game this was of Loki's but he was tired of it. Thor crossed the distance between the two of them quickly and grabbed him by the wrist and twisted Loki around and pressed him against the wall. Thor was about to call for some guards to lead Loki back to his cell when Loki turned to him looking confused but surely this was part of his trick? Even he did not completely understand it's purpose other than perhaps to make him angry.

"Thor what are you doing?" Loki didn't sound scared or angry just confused and a little annoyed which of course elevated all those emotions in him. Until he shifted his grip on Loki's wrist. There was an unfamiliar scar on his wrist. Thor had always known when Loki had gotten hurt before the failed coronation because Frigga would always make a big deal about it even if Loki's body healed it quickly.

So he must have gotten it recently and even though he was angry at Loki the scar was big enough that at one point it had to have been life threatening. It being life threatening was the only way such a scar could have been made. Loki's form even though he was Jotun healed quickly like the Aesir and Loki's magic aiding him in healing as well. Even though his brother was mad and Thor was still angry with him for many things he was also angry at whatever tried to hurt Loki and was concerned about his welfare.

"Where did you get that?" Thor asked and Loki phased through him looking angry for the first time but not his usual kind of angry that mad gaze his eyes looked different.

"I thought we agreed never to talk about it again." Loki said sounding just as hurt as sounded angry. Thor just stared at him since he had no idea what Loki was talking about. Loki made it sound like he was supposed to know how it had happened but he didn't. Nothing was adding up.

"What happened Loki!" Thor shouted tired of Loki's game what ever it was. "What game is this?" Loki's glare deepened for a moment before it simmered down a little and he looked contemplative.

"Could it be?" he muttered barely loud enough for Thor to hear but before he could process Loki's comment Loki's eyes darted to his.

"Thor why do you looked shocked to see me?" he asked a combination of what sounded like curiosity and fear. Thor still wasn't sure what game this was but decided to answer the question anyways.

"The last I saw you, you used the dark elves as a means to escape." Loki's usual mask came over his face and found he liked that more. At least when Loki looked liked that it wasn't nearly as disconcerting than the fake emotions.

"How long ago was that?" Loki asked his gaze giving nothing away and Thor changed his mind he disliked both of them nearly equally. Why could Loki never be honest with him for once?

"What kind of game are you playing"!" Thor asked angrily and tried to dive to capture Loki again only for Loki to use his quick feet to get evade his grasp. Loki didn't run away further then that though and he seemed to be thinking heavily. Loki looked at him and sighed.

"I seem to have made a terrible mistake." for a second Thor hoped that Loki had finally realized the error of his ways but he didn't let himself entertain that hope for long.

"By coming back to the castle to be punished again?" Thor asked but Loki simply shook his head.

"No I'm afraid that if I am indeed correct that I am not your Loki. I am not the Loki from this world. "


	2. Chapter 2

It had to be lie to get Thor to lower his guard so that his brother could escape again. He may not be as smart as Loki but he was not a complete idiot like Loki always seemed to think he was. Thor did not retreat; on the contrary, he tried to catch Loki again, only for him to dance out of the way.

Loki looked at him warily. "Thor, I don't know what I did in this universe, but I swear that I am not him," he said, his hands slightly raised.

Thor would have like to believe him, believe that the Loki standing in front of him had never done the terrible deeds that his brother had done. But he could not fall prey to Loki's lies and allow him to escape again.

"I do not believe you," Thor said, and again he saw a flash of hurt on his brother's features, but this time he put the mask he was familiar with up.

"What would make you believe me?" Loki asked, and that made Thor stop for a minute. Was there anything that Loki could say or do that would make him believe this blatant lie?

He didn't think so, so he shook his head. "I'm afraid you've lied to me too many times for me to able to take anything you say at face value."

Loki nodded, but he didn't look angry, just sad. Thor wished that he could trust Loki, but after he had faked his death to get away, it was hard to trust anything he might say. Still, Loki looked so earnest.

Thor shook his head. He was king now. He didn't have the same luxuries he had had when he had only been a prince. Thor had to watch out for his kingdom, and if he allowed his brother to escape again it would be on him instead of on his father now.

However, Loki just smiled sadly. "It's okay Thor, I understand. What do you plan on doing with me?" he asked.

Thor didn't know. He knew what he should do with him, but he didn't want to. If anyone saw Loki outside of where he should be then things might get messy.

"I'm going to have to put you back in your cell," Thor said.

Loki nodded and gestured for him to lead the way. Thor was not a complete fool though, and he pushed Loki ahead first. Thor wasn't going to be turning his back to Loki anytime while he put his brother back in the cell that he had sprung him out of to avenge their mother's death.

Loki nodded. "I was going to have you lead since I'm unclear on where my cell is. Is it on the main detention level?" Loki asked.

Thor nodded while he spoke aloud. "Aye."

Loki nodded and his footsteps picked up a little, but Thor stayed behind him easily enough. They made their way down the gold halls and slowly worked their way down to the detention level.

Loki stopped when he got there and gave Thor a look that said 'now what'; it was very disconcerting.

"You will go in your old cell."

Loki nodded and looked around at all the cells. "Alright, which one would that be?" Loki asked like he had no clue. He did indeed sound like he had no idea which cell he had been housed in for months. Thor had to remind himself of how convincing it had been watching Loki die and his whole charade before that.

Thor pointed to Loki's cell and Loki frowned as he caught sight of the broken tables and chairs that Thor hadn't gotten around to making someone clean out yet. Besides, Thor wouldn't have put it past Loki to curse the remnants of his cell.

Loki turned and looked at Thor incredulously. "You want me to go in there? With all the broken wood?"

"You are the one who broke it," Thor said, although he didn't really blame him, he knew that Loki had done it after hearing of their mother's death. Thor tossed some things too when he found out himself.

Loki rolled his eyes but only said slightly sarcastically, "Well, in that case..." Loki was so different, so much like his old self, but at the same time still different from him as well. Thor didn't realize he had been staring until Loki said, "Are we going to wait here all day or will you put me in the cell?"

Thor nodded and opened the door to Loki's cell. Loki looked at the cell for a moment his eyes scanning the interior before stepping into it. Thor closed the door and watched as Loki's eyes continued to take in the cell.

Loki turned around and asked him, "Can I have a piece of paper and a pen? Actually, make that a few pieces of paper and a pen."

Thor looked at him suspiciously. Loki could turn words into weapons. What could he do with what he had asked for? However, the cell was magic proof. None of the magic could escape the cell.

"I'll see what I can do," Thor said and turned to walk away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment and let me know what you think.


	3. Chapter 3

Thor did not anticipate the uproar that Loki's return would cause. Even though Loki had willingly gone to his cell, it was the fact that he had returned at all that caused some of the citizens of Asgard to want Loki to be punished more severely than that. It had been as much as he could do to appease them. It was because of that appeasement that, even though he had meant to see his brother earlier, it had taken him three days before he was able to do so. He did however give the order for Loki to be brought his paper and pen. Which might have been a mistake since the guards that Thor had posted at Loki's cell saw him write things on them and then make them disappear.

Thor had come with the intention of trying to get Loki to tell him what he was doing there, when he saw something that made him pause. Loki's bed, tables and chairs were all fixed back to what they had been before, or at least what the illusion had shown. Loki he was sitting in a chair. There were red dots on what looked like the walls of the cell, but they couldn't be touching it because they had to have be made by magic, and magic couldn't touch or go beyond the walls. What surprised him was what Loki was throwing at the targets. Ice daggers. Loki was throwing ice daggers at the walls of cells, but since the walls were made of strong anti-magic, the daggers broke apart as soon they met the walls. This made very little sense to him. Loki had said to be of Asgard when he tried to take over Midgard, and had tried to kill Jotunheim so that he wouldn't have to be one. Loki had never shown any interest in learning any part of his Jotunheim heritage and had killed his biological father.

"Loki, what are you doing?" Thor asked before he could stop himself.

Loki glanced up and looked at Thor, grinning for a second before his smile fell. "Well, you didn't even give me a book; there wasn't much else to do."

"But ice magic?"

Loki shrugged like he did that all the time. "I don't see what all the fuss is about," he said.

Thor frowned. "What did you do with the papers?" he said; it was another subject that he had come down to talk to Loki about.

"They were for you." At Thor's look, Loki quickly amended, "The other you, from my universe. You tend to get a little overprotective and if I hadn't sent him word that I was unharmed, I might come back to us warring against some innocent planet, because Thor somehow got it into his thick skull that they abducted me," Loki said annoyed, but at the same time affectionate.

Thor found again that he wanted to believe Loki, he really did...but he was king, and unless he knew that Loki was telling him the truth, he couldn't let him go.

"Since I'm not incredibly sure where I am, or where Thor is in relation to me, I sent them to my best guess at where he might be. I just hope one of them got to Thor," Loki said, sounding slightly worried.

Thor wasn't sure what purpose this lie had. Honestly, the more Loki talked, the harder it was to convince himself that Loki was lying.

Loki abruptly started laughing, but it wasn't mad, it was joyful. Loki noticed the look that Thor was giving him. "You can't see it from out there, but I'm casting my memories to the walls; yet another thing that has been helping pass the time."

Thor knew that this was probably what Loki wanted: to get him to come into the cell and then spring his plan. But Thor was curious, and the detention level was well watched. In fact, the normal guards had been doubled since Loki had been in there. There was no way that even if this was part of Loki's plan that he could escape.

"I'm going to come in...if that's alright," he added as an afterthought.

Loki looked briefly at Thor, then nodded. Thor opened the door. It could opened only from the outside; there was no handle on the inside. When he wanted to be let out, one of the guards would have to do so. Was he being foolish by being here with Loki? He wanted to trust Loki so badly, but was it forcing him to make bad decisions? He looked up at the wall and froze; he looked at Loki who was smiling and couldn't help but respond in kind.

They were young princes in the memory. Thor was a lot shorter, younger and less muscled than he was now. Loki was even shorter, younger and even less muscled.

The two of them were walking by the side of the road in peasant clothes. They weren't supposed to have been out there. Both of them had wanted to go outside the palace walls though, despite the fact that they weren't allowed. Loki had snuck them out.

Memory Thor was laughing and looking at everything in amazement. Thor's smile widened slightly as he looked at their younger versions. They were so young, so carefree. Memory Loki looked happy as well, and the two of them were actually getting along. Thor reminded himself that this had been before Loki had gone mad. It had been before Thor had started caring more about what Sif and the Warriors three thought of him than what his own brother did, and he lost his smile.

"We got in so much trouble," Loki said with a small smile that Thor mirrored, remembering it. It hadn't been funny or fun at the time, but getting into trouble together for small things rather than being punished alone for bigger things made him nostalgic.

The memory stopped and Loki turned to Thor. "Thor, I know you don't believe me; but what did I do here that makes you distrust me so?" Loki asked, seeming somewhat reluctant.

A small part of Thor did believe him, but he couldn't act on that. However, Thor couldn't see what harm there could be to remind Loki of all the devastation he had caused. "You know what you did, but if you would like a reminder: you let Jotuns into Asgard."

Loki nodded.

"Then when I was in Midgard-"

"Wait you got sent to Midgard?" Loki interrupted, like this was the first time he had heard of this, like he hadn't been there when Odin had sent him away in the first place. He honestly sounded so shocked it took Thor a moment to remember how good of an actor Loki could be. "Because of me?" Loki asked.

"Because you let the Jotuns in."

Loki shook his head. "No, not just that, because I manipulated you into going into Jotunheim."

Thor frowned, he had thought that maybe Loki had at times, but Loki had never admitted to it before. "You what?!" Thor thundered.

Loki had the decency to look sheepish. "Sorry, I forgot we haven't gone over this here like we have in my reality," Loki said.

"Was I angry then too?" Thor asked, mockingly.

"Actually, only a little, but things were...intense," Loki said, slowly and carefully. Thor knew he was leaving something out, but then remembered that whatever he was leaving out was part of a made up story or part of another universe, neither of which he cared about more than Loki admitting that he had manipulated him into going to Jotunheim.

"Please continue." Thor didn't want to, but apparently Loki still could manipulate him because he offered, "You can continue throwing all my many faults to my face."

"Well, you found out what you were, and then you became king. You froze Heimdall and sent the destroyer at me," Thor said, and the burning anger was back, completely burning out any warm feeling he had had towards Loki moments earlier. Especially since that had been only the first time that Loki had tried to kill him.

Loki looked... horrified? He wasn't as perceptive as Loki was, but that was what the expression seemed to be.

Thor ignored it and continued. "When I got back and tried to stop you, you tried to kill me again. Then you tried to destroy Jotunheim." At that, his horrified look increased. "I stopped you, but you ending up dangling from Gungnir. You let go and fell into the abyss. I didn't see you again for about a year, and I thought you dead until I saw you on Midgard killing mortals and trying to become their ruler using the Chitauri as an army. You tried to kill me again, twice. Then when some Midgardian friends and I defeated you, we took you to this very cell. Mother died and you faked your death to escape from this cell, not caring if I thought that you were really dead."

It made him even madder that Loki was looking horrified now, when while at his sentencing he hadn't even shown a shred of guilt or remorse for his actions. That must mean that this was an act. Thor gestured for the guard who had been watching to release him. He walked from the cell and out of the of detention level, not noticing the heartbroken look on Loki's face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been able to update quickly before now since it was already done. It might be a little slower from this point but hopefully not too much. 
> 
> Please comment as it helps me write faster.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that's it's taken so long to post this. I'm really hoping to post quicker from now on.

Three days ago.

Loki had about an hour before the council meeting he had to go to. He wished that Thor would have taken his place, and even though he had tried to bribe Thor into it, he hadn't taken the bait. Damn, his brother was getting smarter; years ago he could have easily bribed or tricked him into it. He supposed that it was a good thing, since Thor was High King.

Loki shook his head; it wasn't the time to think about such things. Not when he had a lot less time to practice his magic now that he actually had a desire for it. He had been advancing fairly well, but like always, he thirsted for more. At the moment he was studying a complicated spell that was actually several spells woven into one. It was meant to be a gift of sorts for Thor's birthday.

Loki looked over the spells' many components one more time before nodding, he was ready. He started stitching the spells together like one would a quilt, and so far it seemed to be going smoothly. It was when he was stitching that last of the spells together that he realized that something was going wrong.

It was always a possibility with magic that something might go horribly wrong, but it did not make it any easier. It did not make his stomach stop churning and it certainly didn't make him stop falling. Falling and falling, end over end, until he suddenly stopped. Loki's knees were braced, but even so he found himself on the floor on his hands and feet. Quite the undignified position for a King, even a lower king.

Loki scrambled up to a standing position as soon as he could get his legs underneath him. He recognized this part of the building; it was near his and Thor's sleeping quarters. His lab was not too far, but why had he left it?

He felt dread seep into him as he remembered that something had gone very wrong with his spell. He had to make sure that his lab was okay! Loki darted up several hallways before he found himself in front of the door to his lab. He opened the door hoping to find it fine and not burnt, fearing for its complete destruction.

Loki frowned as he realized that what was in it was a bedroom, one that didn't seem to be being used. That was strange. The room looked the same, but his lab was not in it. Maybe he had the wrong room? The spell might have scrambled his brain a little bit. Loki closed the door and walked to the next door, which was locked, as was the next. His lab had a genetic lock so that only Thor and he could enter the door. Was this a prank of Thor's? Loki shook his head, Thor knew better than to mess with his lab. Loki had old spells on most of his things to prevent people from messing with them. Loki found himself spinning in a circle for a few moments before walking a few paces, then spinning again and going back the other way.

"What are you doing here?" Thor barked angrily and Loki turned around to see Thor looking at him very angrily, more angrily then he could ever remember him looking before. Loki frowned at Thor's tone and his accusation. It wasn't like Thor to sound like this.

"Thor I-" Loki started, but Thor cut him off before he could get his next words out.

"What are you doing here?!" Thor demanded again.

Loki replied, annoyed, "I was just about to tell you. What's got your knickers in a twist?" Thor's frown deepened for some reason at his words. There was something odd about this situation, something that he should know, but seemed just out of his reach. Like where was his lab?

"I can't seem to find my lab," Loki said, as his eyes darted up the hallway to where his lab was supposed to be, to down the hall where Thor had come from. There was something strange about all this, something tickling the edge of his mind.

"Lab?" Thor asked faintly, but Loki wasn't really paying attention to him; he was trying to figure out what was going on.

"Yes, my lab, I thought it was up there, but it's just a bedroom," Loki said, puzzled.

There was something off about all this. But before he could think much more about it, Thor's arm grabbed his wrist and Loki suddenly found himself pressed against the gleaming palace walls. The walls might have been cold against his head if it wasn't for his heritage.

Why was Thor pressing him against the wall? That didn't make any sense. Thor knew that they had to present a united front if they wanted their new leadership to work. Any revenge for pranks done had to be done in private, not somewhere would anyone could see. Besides, Thor hadn't even seemed all that angry after the last prank he had pulled. Loki moved his head so that he could see Thor and try to figure out why he was holding him against the wall.

"Thor what are you doing?" Loki asked, confused and slightly annoyed. His brother shifted his grip to get a firmer grasp on him and he felt Thor's fingers ghost over his scar.

Whatever was off about Thor didn't come to him immediately. Maybe because he was still a little bit nauseous. But then Loki suddenly realized: it was the way Thor was looking at him, like he was angry at him for some reason but at the same time shocked to see him. Loki frowned, wondering if Thor was maybe trying to pull a trick on him. Thor had tried before, but Loki was usually able to see an attempt to pull a trick before the trick fully formed in Thor's head.

"What are you doing here?" Thor asked, his voice full of rage, and Loki's frown deepened. "Where did you get that?" He asked, referring to the scar.

Loki felt anger course through him and hurt as well. "I thought we agreed never to talk about it again," Loki said. It had been a mistake and mainly Thor's fault that it was so big in the first place. Thor had agreed never to talk about it again, because he knew how much it upset him. Normally he wore a leather band over it, or put a spell over it, but in his lab he took both off. Loki must have been so confused about not being able to find his lab again that he forgot to cover it.

Thor was looking at him like he had no idea what Loki was talking about, like he hadn't been there when it had happened in the first place. "What happened Loki?!"

Loki's glare deepened. Thor knew what happened, just as he knew that Loki didn't want to talk about it. Why was he bringing it up? Had he done something? Something to make Thor go back on his promise?

"What game is this?"

Game? Thor thought that this was a game? Loki still played jokes on Thor, but small ones. Thor knew that he wouldn't play games with him and Thor wouldn't have asked him about his scar since he had been there. There was also the matter of his missing lab. Even if this was some sort of elaborate prank, his lab couldn't be moved without causing serious damage. Thor knew all this, and as much as his mind struggled to wrap his head around the idea that now took shape in his head, it was the only thing that made sense.

"Could it be?" he muttered to himself as his eyes met Thor's. "Thor why did you look so shocked to see me?" he asked in a combination of curiosity and fear. He wanted Thor to drop the charade if it was one – which he doubted because Thor was not that great of an actor. Loki was pretty sure that Thor could not ask about his scar in a way that suggested he had never seen it before, if Thor was the brother he knew and had grown up with.

"The last I saw you, you used the dark elves as a means to escape," Thor said. Loki forced himself to mask his emotions. It had been a while since he had done that with Thor, but then again this wasn't his Thor, it was some other Thor. Some other Thor who apparently didn't trust him, and from what it sounded like, this Loki had been imprisoned in Asgard and had used the dark elves to escape.

"How long ago was that?" Loki asked trying to get some sort of time frame established.

"What kind of game are you playing?!" Thor asked angrily and tried to dive to capture Loki again. Thankfully, Loki had always been quick on his feet and evaded Thor.

What should he do? He wasn't sure how he got there in the first place, except that the spell he had been working on had gone horribly wrong. How could he get back to his own world if he wasn't even sure what he had done wrong in the first place?

Thor looked like he still wanted to capture him. Loki knew that unless he wanted to hurt Thor or teleport away and have armies waste their time coming after him he was going to have to be honest with Thor. Loki sighed, because from the looks of things, even if Loki told Thor the truth, he wasn't sure he would be believed.

"I seem to have made a terrible mistake."

"By coming back to the castle to be punished again?" Thor asked, but Loki shook his head.

"No, I'm afraid that if I am indeed correct, that I am not your Loki. I am not the Loki from this world."

~o~

Of course, the truth had not gone over well and now he was stuck here in a cell serving time for crimes that he had never committed. Although, after Thor had told him of the crimes that Loki of this world had done, he found himself less angry and bitter that Thor didn't believe him. Loki supposed it might be hard to believe someone who tried to kill you so many times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment and let me know what you think


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for all the comments

Thor made his way down to the dungeons to see Loki again. He had tried to avoid going down there for as long as he could, but nothing that Loki had said made any sense, and despite his better judgment, Thor wanted to see his brother again. He saw Loki staring at the wall, probably watching more of his memories. Loki's eyes turned to him, though he did not smile or look any different.

"Hello Thor," he said tiredly, his voice worn.

"Loki," Thor greeted.

"Do you want to come in again?" Loki asked.

Thor hesitated; he knew that he shouldn't, but he ignored the part of himself that said it wasn't smart and nodded as he opened Loki's door. Loki did indeed look like he was watching a memory, but one that Thor couldn't place.

"This is last yule," Loki said, with a sad smile.

Thor sat down on Loki's bed as he saw himself and Loki sitting in Loki's room. Memory Thor briefly looked worried but most of Memory Loki's gaze seemed to be focused on the ceiling.

"Mom had just died." Loki said sadly.

How was Loki showing him something that didn't exist? How could he be casting a fake memory to the wall, one that looked so solid?

 _"I miss her, Thor,"_ Memory Loki's voice rang out, and Thor could hear the sorrow in it.

Real Loki shook his head as the memory turned gray on the wall. "Sorry, it's just that I don't like thinking about it. I'll find a happier memory." After a moment, a new memory lit up the wall.

 _"Then the giant came and I struck it down_ _!_ _"_ Thor's excited image again came on the screen. It was evidently recent, only he didn't remember this one either. _"You don't find this story amusing?" Thor asked, his exuberance dying._

_"I was there, Thor, remember?" Loki replied with amusement in it._

_"Oh yes, I remember now," Thor said, sounding a little morose._

_"But tell it again if you wish," Loki offered._

_"There is no need," Thor said, his voice trailing off sadly._

_"Thor I'm sorry that your birthday has been such a somber occasion," Loki said, sounding sincere. "Next year I promise your birthday will be a true holiday. People will drink for days and tell tales of the great King Thor!"_

It sounded like Loki was genuine, but you could never really tell with him. Again, Thor wondered how it was possible. The memory wasn't flickering or displaying any of the usual signs of a false memory.

_"It has been fine, brother. I'm just glad that you are still here with me," Thor said with a small smile._

_Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun and Sif and walked into the room. Loki could see them but Thor couldn't._

_"You should go with them." Loki said, and Thor caught Loki's finger gesturing to the Warriors Three and Sif._

_"Loki I-"_

_"Thor, they are your friends, and I know you hardly get to see them anymore since becoming king. So go, have fun!" Loki's said jovially. "But not too much fun. You are king now and you don't want to cause a scandal," Thor looked torn, like he wanted to say no, but he also wanted to go. "Thor, it's okay. I'm not jealous, you don't have to feel bad for leaving."_

Real Thor frowned. Loki sounded so honest, so cheerful. There was no flickering, and yet Thor still couldn't recall the memory in his own mind.

_Thor just smiled in gratitude and got up from the table, making his way over to the Warriors Three and Sif._

"Thor, are you okay?"

For a moment, Thor thought it was another memory, but the space that had shown the memories before was now blank; it was Real Loki who was speaking now.

Thor was very unsure. At first, he was sure that this was a lie, but now he didn't know. Though surely, if anyone could convincingly fake a memory, it was Loki. But he had faked two, not just one. Still, Loki could do it… right?

"Loki, I need you to show me another one, from the last few years," Thor requested, and Loki nodded.

_"What are you doing out here?" Thor asked, worried. Loki was huddled in on himself, surrounded on all sides by trees and snow. Loki didn't answer immediately, but rather, he looked down at the snow that was around him instead. "Loki," Thor demanded._

_After a long moment of silence, Loki sighed, but he didn't look up as he responded, "Odin and me-"_

_"You mean Father," Thor corrected in a tired way that suggested that this was not the first time that Thor had corrected Loki about this._

_"Yes, 'Father'," Loki corrected, but Thor could still hear some spite in his voice, " and me fought again."_

_"Loki-"_

_"I know it's not-" Loki paused. "He just lied to me for so long and we've never... You probably think me stupid." Loki said spitefully, thought this time it seemed to be aimed more at himself than at their father._

_Thor sat down by Loki in the snow and shivered a little, but didn't get back up. "You are certainly not stupid. Stubborn, mulish and quick to anger yes, but stupid, no."_

_A frown slowly appeared on Loki's face as he looked at Thor. "I'm sorry. I did not mean to make you look for me in the cold."_

_Thor shivered again. "I will always come looking for you, brother," he said honestly._

_There was a long pause before Loki's said, "Thank you for coming after me."_

_Thor smiled._

Real Thor turned away from the memory screen. Memories were hard to fake, and doing three separate ones so easily could really only mean one thing: Loki was telling the truth; the Loki in front of him had to be from a different universe.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: some people might feel uncomfortable with a small part of this chapter.

* * *

Thor considered briefly that this was still all a trick, a trap. But honestly, his gut told him to believe Loki, and it was his gut that usually told him the opposite.

"What are you doing?" memory Thor asked memory Loki, who was looking at a book intensely.

"Loki," Thor found himself saying. The real Loki turned towards him and memory died again. Thor battled within himself again, wondering how it was that he had somehow come to believe something that his brother – the god of lies – said. "Maybe I am the fool you have always taken me for, but I believe you."

Loki smiled at him. Again, it was strange that the smile didn't speak of madness and was not condescending in the least. It was an honest, genuine smile.

"Thor, you aren't a fool. Sometimes a little too trusting, but never a fool."

"What is different in your world?" Thor asked.

Loki smiled again; it was alarming to see Loki smile so genuinely. It had been a long time since he had seen his brother smile a smile that wasn't mocking, smirking, or mad.

"Well, I have certainly never been in a cell before," Loki said, looking around the room distastefully. Thor would have liked to move Loki, but at the moment, he wasn't sure if that was such a smart idea.

"I'm sorry about the cell-"

Loki shook his head. "It's fine, quite comfortable for a cell, actually. I just wish it had a few more books – ones I haven't already read," he said pointedly when Thor opened his mouth to point out there were many books in the room.

"Maybe books from a different realm," Loki said, sounding a little distracted, then he blinked. "My realm?" Loki asked Thor, nodded.

Loki sighed. "My realm. I wanted to be king and you were to be king. I wanted to stop you from taking the crown so soon, in hopes that father would see that I would be a more worthy ruler."

Thor frowned; he had never before heard his brothers reasoning for letting the Jotuns in.

"You weren't supposed to be banished, just made to wait a little longer while I showed father that I was more worthy," Loki said, sounding embarrassed but at the same time a little defensive. "As far as I can tell, the real difference between your world and mine was father." Again Loki said 'father' instead of 'your father', or the 'allfather'. Loki hadn't called their father 'father' since he had found out the truth about his heritage. "Your father banished you," Loki said bitterly and Thor felt as though he had to defend his father's actions.

"It was the right thing to do. I was arrogant and brash and time with the Midgardians humbled me," Thor explained.

Loki shook his head and looked off in thought. "Maybe, but our father from my realm did not banish you." Thor frowned. "Instead, he made you work in the stables and the kitchens until you learned the value of work and listening."

Thor thought about that, and Midgard seemed like the easier of options. Thor had only been there for three days but, since Jane had run him over with her car twice, she had felt responsible for him and he hadn't had to want for much.

"You hated it. You thought the work to be below that of the would-be king, especially since someone else was regent at the time, and you never hesitated to complain about it to anyone who would listen." Loki looked down and seemed to be struggling a bit with the words. "Actually, maybe we should just watch it," he said, and suddenly there was something on the wall again.

_Loki walked up and down the length of his room again and again; the expression on his face was heartbreaking._

Thor couldn't remember the last time he had seen his brother so sad looking – probably because long ago Loki had learned to mask his pain. Sometime over the years, Thor had come to the conclusion that, just because Loki hadn't shown his feelings, it meant that he didn't have them. In hindsight, that assumption seemed stupid.

_Loki mumbled under his breath incomprehensively, only the occasional word could be heard. "Monster…monster."_

Thor's heart dropped. This was what his brother had gone through? While he was flirting with Jane, this was what his brother had been dealing with? When he thought his brother dead, he had wished that he had been there for him, and maybe that if he had been, it might have ended differently. Was he about to find out that was true?

 _Loki's eyes went to his battle armor._ Thor frowned, not liking the look that he saw in his brother's eyes; desperation and heartbreak. _He strode forward and grabbed one of his throwing daggers._

Thor sought Loki's eyes, but Loki looked pointedly away from him, which increased his fear of what he was about to see.

_He moved the sleeve of his shirt up, and whispered a few words under his breath. Suddenly, every inch of his exposed body changed to a vibrant, Jotun blue – complete with the ridges. The only things that remained the same were his hair and outfit._

Thor did his best to control his own face. He knew that Loki was a Frost Giant, but he had never actually seen his brother look like one.

_He lowered the dagger to his wrist so that it ghosted lightly against his skin._

Thor had to look away, not able to see his brother do that to himself.

"I wasn't trying to hurt myself, not seriously," Loki said.

"Then what were you doing?" Thor demanded, because certainly looked like that was where the memory was headed.

"You'll see."

_Loki bit his lip and started to slowly drag the knife across his wrist, just as the door opened. Thor strode in, his face angry and his mouth open, ready to start complaining about something, but the unexpected movement caused Loki to cut faster and wider than he had been planning to. Thor froze and looked at Loki, surprised and a little angry._

"You didn't know I was a frost giant," Loki explained. "I hadn't told you and neither had mother or father."

_"What have you done with my brother, Frost Giant?!" Thor thundered._

_Loki's face, though, was focused on his wrist and on the black blood that was rapidly streaming from the wound. "It is a different color," he said in an odd, detached kind of way_

Thor looked at Loki, who's eyes were fixed on the floor.

In that moment, memory Loki looked Aesir again and memory Thor looked confused since Loki was still bleeding in exactly the same place that the Frost Giant had been.

_"Brother?" Thor asked uncertainly._

Thor wished that he didn't sound as dumb as his brother always claimed he did, but how could memory Thor not see what was going on?

_"There was a Frost Giant here and he-" Thor said, still confused._

_"Idiot, that frost giant was, and still is, me!" Loki said with gritted teeth, and for the first time, Thor turned his attention to Loki, who appeared to be in a lot of pain. There was a large quantity of now red blood flowing out of the wound, and yet Thor just stood there staring at his brother._

_"But you aren't a frost giant," Thor said._

Thor wished that he could go into the memory and get Loki something to stop the bleeding himself since neither of them were doing anything about it. _Thankfully, at that moment, Thor ripped part of his shirt off to bind the wound._

_Loki moved away from him and looked at the scrap of fabric with distaste. "I am not putting that on my wound; it's full of germs," Loki said as he made his way into the bathroom. He tied a bath towel around his arm and Thor could see how bad the wound was by the fact that his blood quickly seeped through the towel._

No wonder the scar on Loki's wrist was so big and noticeable. Loki's magic must have had to work hard to get it to close, and as such, couldn't focus on making the skin smooth. Both Thor and memory Thor stared while the towel turned redder before their eyes.

 _"We must get you to the healers," Thor said._ Thor was glad that his memory self was finally talking sense.

_Loki looked away. "No."_

_"Brother, you are hurt."_

_"I've been hurt for a week and you haven't noticed," Loki muttered under his breath._

Thor's heart ached for his brother. In his world, it had only been three days before he could see the hurt in his brother's eyes.

_Thor looked confused again, then angry. "Why did you hurt yourself?!" he demanded._

Thor knew that he had been brash in those days, but he still couldn't help but wince. That was not a terribly smart way to go about talking to his brother about something like this.

_"Why would you care?" Loki threw back at him, the bitterness evident in his voice._

_"If you wanted my attention you could have asked."_

Thor winced again.

_"Yes, because if I had asked, you would've dropped everything to give me your attention," Loki said sarcastically and spitefully. "Besides, I don't want your attention," he shook his head angrily, "we're meant to be enemies. Never brothers."_

Thor took that in. He was right: Loki would have been Laufey's son, and Thor would have been Odin's son. If they had grown up with their biological families, they would have been the kings or princes of two enemy nations. He wondered if his Loki had felt the same way, if that was why he kept on correcting Thor whenever he had called him 'brother'.

Of course, memory Thor apparently couldn't put all the information he had been given together and still looked confused.

_"Loki, we must get you to a healer."_

_He shook his head. "My magic will heal me, although, maybe it would be better if it didn't."_

Both Thors jumped a bit at the harsh words.

_"Why would you say such things, brother? Why would you do that to yourself?"_

_"We are not brothers!" Loki yelled with the vehemence that Thor was used to whenever he called Loki his brother. "And this," he pointed to the red towel on his wrist, "this is your fault."_

_"Of course we are brothers," Thor insisted, confused as to why he would say otherwise._

_"No, we are not! You can't even use your eyes can you? I'm a frost giant!" Loki shouted angrily, magic crackling at the edges of his words._


	7. Chapter 7

_"I'm a frost giant!" Loki shouted angrily, magic crackling at the edges of his words. When magic users got angry, sometimes they released magic without realizing it._

Thor looked confused even though Loki had told him the truth and he had seen Loki as a frost giant with his own eyes. Maybe Loki was right, maybe he had been an idiot. Then again, maybe he was just having trouble wrapping his mind around it. He knew that after Loki had fallen and his parents had told him why Loki had gone so crazy, he had a little trouble with the knowledge that his brother, the one he had spent the last thousand years with, was a frost giant.

_Thor's eyes slowly widened in horror and he took a step back from Loki._

Thor wanted to shake his memory self, especially after looking at Memory Loki, who looked devastated for a second at Thor's reaction, before appearing resigned, like that was how everyone was going to react. But the look of horror only lasted for a few moments before another look took over Memory Thor's face: concern and determination.

_Thor strode across the room and hugged Loki, who looked surprised and shocked at him doing such a thing; in fact, for a few moments he appeared as if he was trying to get away but was unable to because Thor was holding onto him too strongly._

_"Brother it's going to be okay," Thor said reassuringly._

Thor's heart pounded painfully, this was what was different. Memory Thor had been there for Loki in his time of need had seen him as he was, but had still treated him like a brother.

_"How can it be okay Thor? I'm a monster," Loki said into his shoulder._

_"You are not a monster, Loki. You are my brother, and you will always be my brother," Thor reassured._

The memory faded away. Loki was still looking at the ground of the cell.

"You said that you were scared at first, and your first inclination was to leave; but then you looked at the blood soaked towel and you said that all you could think about was how much your brother would have to be hurting to do something like that to himself, and you found that you didn't care if I was born a frost giant," Loki said. When he finally looked up, his expression was equally grateful and sad. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't come when you did."

But this Thor did: his version of Loki would have been made.

"This is my fault," Thor said aloud, shocked, but Loki shook his head.

"No, it isn't. I let in the Jotuns and I manipulated you into going to Jotunhiem. I should have been the one that was banished, but mother always said that I was too smart for my own good. Whatever I did here, I did," Loki nodded his head "not you." Loki added with a shake of his head.

"But you would not have done it had I been there for you."

Loki seemed unconvinced. "Or, maybe I would have. You can't know for sure," Loki insisted. "Besides, you can't change the past and it does no good to dwell on it."

Thor thought for a second about how different that was from his Loki who treated all the wrongs that had happened in his past as reason for everything he had done afterwards, before shaking his head.

"But if I–" Thor started, only for Loki to interrupt and put his hand gently on his arm.

"Thor I'm an adult, yes?" Thor frowned, not sure where Loki was going with that but he nodded. "Then I make my own decisions and my choices are my own, right?" Loki asked, and now Thor knew what Loki was getting at.

"But–"

"But nothing; I did what I did and it's nobody's fault but mine, and maybe your father's," Loki said a little bitterly, making it clear that while this Loki called their father 'father', they appeared to still have some issues between the two of them.

Thor nodded, although he wasn't sure if he agreed. The only thing that seemed different between the two timelines was that Thor hadn't been there for his brother when he needed him most.

"So what happens now?" Loki asked, interrupting him from his thoughts. "Do I stay here for the rest of my days?" he said, his eyes looking around the cell.

Thor shook his head. This Loki hadn't done what his Loki had done, and he believed strongly that this was not his Loki. He wasn't willing to punish this Loki anymore for doing what his Loki had done.

"No, I'll let you out, but you can't stay here. I don't think anyone else will believe that you are not my Loki."

Loki nodded and looked around the cell again. "I don't want to stay here anyway," he said quietly, but he looked pensive.

Thor got the guards to open the door for him and he held the door open for Loki. Thor could see that the guards were not fond of his decision, but like good soldiers, they did not say anything.

Loki got off the bed and made his way out of the cell to stand by his side. Loki's eyes found Thor's and Thor almost wanted to put him back in the cell just so he could get to know him. Get to know Loki again, a brother who wasn't bent on revenge and filled with so much anger and jealousy; but Loki deserved his own Thor back and deserved to go back home.

"So, do you want to go back to your world now?" Thor asked even though he wanted Loki to stay.

"I do," Loki nodded, and Thor sighed; he had known that Loki probably wouldn't want to stay here in a world where he was hated and feared. A world in which Thor hadn't been there for him when he needed him. But he had still hoped…

"–but there's something I want to do first."

Thor frowned, wondering what that could possibly be. "And what's that?"

"I want to help you capture myself," Loki said with a mischievous smile.

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

"You want to what?" Thor said, not quite sure that he heard Loki right.

His smile changed from mischievous to serious in an instant. "From what you told me, your Loki is very either mad or very lost; either way he'll only keep hurting people, most likely innocent people if he is left to his own devices."

Thor did not disagree. Still, he wasn't sure about the idea. "You are very hard to find," Thor pointed out, and Loki nodded.

"That's why I want to find him. Who better to find me than me? I may not be 100% the same, but I bet I'm close enough to be able to use our way of thinking against him. I can guess what he would do in a given situation more accurately than anyone else in this universe can."

Thor nodded; it made sense – at least, in the way that anything in this situation made sense. "You really want to help me capture...you?"

Loki nodded. "So long as you promise me one thing."

"What's that?" Thor asked warily, wondering if it was something that he could give or not.

"That once I am captured, you won't kill me – him. I can deal with Loki being in prison for the rest of his life, but I can't help you capture him if I know that that in doing so I'll be killing him. I guess I'm a bit too narcissistic for that," Loki said with a self-depreciating smile.

"You know – or, maybe you don't – that I never wanted to kill him – you? – right?" He shook his head; his whole thing was making him pretty confused. "I just wanted to stop him, but Loki, he might not give us an option."

"I don't ask that you put yourself, or anyone else, in harm's way. If it comes down to it and Loki intends to seriously harm someone, then by all means take him down. All I ask is that if we manage to capture him alive, that you put him in prison rather than sentencing him to death."

Thor nodded; the kingdom might not be happy with that decision, but he could never see himself putting Loki to death anyway, even after everything he had done.

"Then we will go now," Thor said. He wished to sleep, but once people knew of his plans – probably by means of the gossiping guards – they would probably rise against him.

Thor started out the door. Loki looked confused for a second then decided to follow him.

"You may want to put a glamor on," Thor suggested, and Loki frowned but complied, making himself look like Volstagg.

"Not anyone in Asgard," Thor warned, and Loki's frown deepened. He made himself look like the ambassador from Alfheim. The ambassador who had only been an ambassador for about a year now.

"Thor, I don't understand; you are king, right? Can't you just leave? Where are we going?"

Thor hadn't really thought it through, but a plan came to him rather quickly. "I have to go talk to the council." He didn't want to, but as king, he couldn't just leave his kingdom without saying anything to anyone about it, the way he had done when he was still a prince.

"You didn't answer my question. Where are we going?" Loki asked.

"You asked another question first and I did answer that one," Thor replied with a smile.

"Thor where are we going?" Loki asked again, with more than a hint of annoyance. Thor found himself smiling wider, which only made Loki look more annoyed.

"Midgard."

Loki frowned. "Why there?" he asked, puzzled.

"Because SHIELD wants him found as well, and if there is any hint as to where he is, then they will know it."

Loki nodded looking less annoyed now. "Alright… What is this 'shield'?"

Thor smiled because this version of his brother hadn't caused so much trouble with the organization.

"A human group that got angry when my Loki tried to take over earth."

Loki nodded with a strained smile. "Uh, so," Loki shook his head, "they don't like me do they?"

"I don't think that anyone we meet on earth likes you," Thor said apologetically. "Still, they are our best hope. Now I have to talk with the council."

Loki nodded. "I have to go get some stuff from my room, and then I will meet you at Heimdall."

"Perhaps you should wait for me away from there," Thor suggested, remembering when Loki froze Heimdall. Thor normally thought that Heimdall wasn't the kind of person to carry a grudge, but it was probably better to be safe than sorry. "By the way, his room is booby-trapped."

He had found that out the hard way the second time he thought Loki was dead. He had intended to look in Loki's room, but the second he opened the door, his hair had turned pink. The healers said that he was lucky, that if he had touched something else, it could have been dangerous rather than just humorous.

"Of course it is, but it was me who booby-trapped it."

Thor paused. "But what if-"

"As far as I can tell, Loki has been gone for almost the same amount of time as in my reality, and I doubt he changed any of the enchantments on our stuff while he was going insane with the knowledge that he was a frost giant."

Thor realized he was probably right, but didn't like how nonchalantly Loki talked about his other self, his brother.

"I need to go in there or I'll have no clothes to wear," Loki said, before turning on his heel and heading towards Loki's room.

Thor wanted to see the room without fearing for his life, but he had to talk to the council first. He headed in the opposite direction, knowing that he was going to have a bit of a fight on his hands. Because even though now he knew that this Loki wasn't his Loki, he was going to have a hard time convincing the council of it.


	9. Chapter 9

Loki looked around his room. It was covered in dust and it looked like it had been abandoned for years, which apparently it had been. No one had even attempted to clean it, which was probably wise because there were several spells that would be triggered if someone other than him touched any of his stuff.

Loki hesitated for a moment, wondering if he would trigger the spells since he was technically from a different universe. To be on the safe side, he touched an item that would turn his hair pink if he wasn't recognized, which would be easy enough to change back. When he touched it though, he went to closest mirror and saw that his hair was still black. Good, that was good; that meant that he could touch the rest of the items in his room without being harmed.

Loki took out the traveling trunk that he used on the rare occasions when he had slept outside of his own room. He shrunk things so he could fit more and packed his trunk full of clothes, his magic related things and anything else he thought he might want. He then closed his trunk, shrunk it as well and put it in his pocket.

He looked at the time and found that he had been in there for ten minutes. Could Thor already be done with the council? Doubtful, especially since what he was asking for was probably very hard to swallow. According to Thor, his Loki was not a very trustworthy individual, and Loki knew that he hadn't been trustworthy either until he had found out the truth and he and Thor had really connected. That was when Loki had learned that the only way he could get what he always wanted – to be respected and loved by everyone – was to give up the lies that he had used his whole life to protect himself. It had not been an easy transition, and sometimes Loki found himself still lying just because it was his first inclination.

In any case, he was ready now, and so he decided to wait for Thor just outside the entrance to the Bifrost.

~.~

Thor let out a loud sigh as he quickly packed a few items into a trunk. He did not need much because he still had a room in Midgard at the Avenger's tower, which still had his things in it, even if he had not been there for a few years. Tony had said that he wouldn't touch his stuff because he knew that Thor was coming back, which, until today, he had thought was false hope.

The council wasn't happy. First, that he was letting Loki go and that Thor was leaving with him. Second, they were unhappy that Thor was trusting Loki. But apparently, some of his brother's silver tongue must have passed on to him, because he managed to talk them into two weeks on Midgard with Loki. He had been able to phrase it to make it seem like the council had the upper hand: the head of the council was to act as king for two weeks to see how smoothly it would go in case Thor died, since he didn't have any heirs at the moment and Loki wasn't going to be ruling any time this century. The fact that the high council president had sided with him made it easier.

Thor looked around his room one last time before making his way through the castle.

~.~

Loki glamoured himself again as the ambassador as he left the room and easily made his way to the entrance of the Bifrost. Thor had told him to wait outside, and he did for a while, but Loki knew that Heimdall would have heard the entire conversation and wanted to know what he thought, so he stepped into the room and let down his glamour. The sentential looked at him as he entered but didn't speak.

"Do you believe Thor, or do you still think I am the man who froze you?" Loki asked. The sentential's face was as ever impassive. Loki after a moment realized it didn't matter to him what the answer was, he just wanted to talk to the sentential. "Did I really do everything Thor told me I did?" he asked,needing to hear confirmation from someone other than Thor.

Heimdall nodded his head and Loki took that in. He hadn't honestly thought Thor was lying, but part of him had hoped.

"Then I'm sorry that he froze you," Loki said. "I know it probably doesn't mean much since I'm not him, and if you do think I am him then you probably think that I'm lying, but I am sorry." Loki tensed up for a second when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps, thinking it was someone who intended him harm, only to relax when he saw it was just Thor.

"I have to be back in two weeks, whether or not we find him," Thor said regretfully.

"Well then, hopefully it won't take us that long to find him," Loki replied. He too couldn't stay too long or his Thor would go crazy.

Loki moved so that he was in position to leave and waited for Thor to give the order when he heard, "Thor!" from behind them.

Thor and Loki turned around to see Sif standing there. Her eyes were narrowed at Loki and Loki couldn't remember the last time that he had seen her look so angry with him; maybe it was the time he had cut off her hair? He was tired of everyone hating him so blatantly.

"You have to know that whatever he's said to you, whatever he's told you, it can't be true," she said with a shake of her head. Thor looked at Loki, who looked down at the ground.

Thor glanced back up at Sif and said honestly, "I'm sorry Sif but I trust him."

"After everything, how can you?!" Sif shouted angrily.

"Because he's my brother," Thor said and Loki smiled in response. "Heimdall," he called and Heimdall stuck his sword, which activated the Bitfrost, and Thor found himself soaring through the rainbow bridge.

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers.
> 
> A/N: I am so so so sorry that's it's been such a long time since I last updated I promise that the next one will not take nearly as long in fact it should be up tomorrow.

They landed in New Mexico again. If Jane had still been there, he would have visited her, but she was still living in England; though, he was sure that at some point he could fit a visit to Jane into their plans.

Loki looked around at the desert strangely, which was when Thor realized that Loki had probably never been in a desert.

"Have you been on earth before?" Thor asked when the thought stuck him.

Loki shook his head. "Not for a couple of centuries, and not in the desert." He looked warily at the barren landscape.

"What's wrong?" Thor asked, concerned.

"I'm a frost giant. We don't do well in heat. Mother put a spell on me that lessens the effect but still, it's not pleasant."

Thor nodded; they should leave anyways. "We need to get to New York."

Loki looked at him strangely and Thor realized that Loki probably had no idea where that was or where they were. It was odd finally knowing something that Loki didn't that didn't have to do with battle.

"How are we getting there? By ship?" Loki asked, but even his voice sounded doubtful. "As I remember, their technology isn't that advanced yet."

Thor nodded.

"So h-" Then Loki's eyes narrowed in distaste. "No," he said, shaking his head. Thor frowned; he hadn't even said anything yet. Had Loki guessed it? "I am not flying with you."

"But Loki-"

Loki projected another memory screen and grabbed Thor's head in his hands.

"Think about this New York."

Thor knew what he was doing: he was trying to get a mental picture of New York, but Thor wasn't sure why. There were certain spells that needed a clear picture, but as far as he knew, Loki wasn't powerful enough for any of those.

Loki nodded after a moment and smiled. "I'll see you there," he said, then teleported away in a flash of green.

Thor just stood there for a long moment with his mouth open. This Loki could teleport. Thor was suddenly very glad that this Loki was on his side. Otherwise things would be very, very bad.

~.~

It took Thor a little longer to get to New York than it did Loki, and he found Loki on one of the roofs of Manhattan, sipping what looked to be coffee; his brother had always been a quick study.

Loki smirked when Thor touched down. "What took you so long, brother?"

 _Brother_ , he equally liked and disliked Loki calling him that. He liked the warm feeling it gave him, but it also made him remember all the times Loki had said that they weren't brothers. Thor didn't answer, and instead looked for the Avenger Tower, which was about 10 blocks away.

"You see that tower there," Thor said, pointing toward it. "That's where we're going."

Loki nodded and disappeared again in another flash of green. Thor realized with alarm that he should have warned him. Stark would probably not take Loki teleporting right into his house very well. Thor quickly took to the sky again and just hoped he got there before it got too bad.

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kay I lied it's one dayish late but at least it's here.

Loki appeared on the roof of the building, then shrugged and opened the door. Obviously whoever ever lived there was a friend of Thor's and the day was hot and he didn't want to spend any time he didn't have to in the heat. Loki headed down the stairs and saw a shorter man drop his glass in surprise. There was sound of footsteps behind him, which were thankfully familiar. Loki turned to see Thor come into the room and stand in between Loki and the other man.

"Why the hell is reindeer games here?" the short man asked him, annoyed. Loki looked to Thor, waiting to be introduced.

"Tony, this is not who you think it is."

"So this isn't the Loki who threw me out that window?!" he exclaimed, pointing to the nearest window. Loki frowned and looked to Thor for confirmation, who nodded wearily. He had thrown a man out of a window?

"If I threw you out of that window, how did you survive?" Loki found himself asking as he circled the man. Apparently this was not the right thing to say because he looked even angrier.

"I was able to get my suit on in time."

"What suit?" he asked Thor. "Is it some sort of battle armor?" He walked closer to the window and saw that they were many stories up. "I don't think battle armor would help much from a height like this."

"What is he talking about?" Tony asked Thor, seeming extremely irritated. "Why is he acting like he has no clue what's going on?"

"Because he doesn't. He isn't the Loki that you know," Thor said, trying to explain.

"Okay then, what kind of Loki is he?" Tony asked sarcastically, clearly not believing a word that his brother was saying.

"I'm from another universe," Loki said, still peering out the window "You have a nice view."

Tony looked at Thor. "He's kidding right?"

He shook his head. "No, he isn't your Loki."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I'm his brother and I know."

Loki smiled even though he knew from the look on the man's face that Thor's assurance was clearly was not enough for him.

"Yeah, as sweet as that sounds, I'm going need something a little more solid to go on, or I'm getting SHIELD to lock him up."

Loki smile died, he wouldn't allow anyone to lock him up. He wasn't going to go to Midgardian jail for something that he didn't even do, besides they had to capture the other him.

"I assure you that I am not the Loki that you know."

"And I assure you I don't give a flying f-"

"Tony I know it's difficult to wrap your head around, but he isn't the Loki that you know-" Thor was cut off by a loud annoying sound of some sort going off.

"What is that?" Loki asked.

"That's the alarm that sounds when people like you attack my city," Tony said, pointing at Loki accusatorily.

Oh, so it was  _this_  city on Midgard that Loki had attacked; everything suddenly made much more sense.

"What is it?" Loki asked curiously. "What's doing the attacking?"

"I'm not going tell you; you'd probably go join it."

Loki rolled his eyes, but didn't respond the shorter man's barbs. For whatever reason, Tony didn't like him, and from what he heard about his other self, the man probably had a good reason. "Thor," he said instead.

"Loki you cannot go," Thor denied with a shake of his head.

Loki frowned. "Why not?"

"Because it would be confusing for the Midgardians. To them you are a villain; if you suddenly start fighting for good, they might think you are changing sides."

"Maybe I will change sides." That was the whole point of this thing: for him to save his other self to get his other self to see that his course of action would only serve to make him miserable for the rest of his life. Not that he had told Thor that. In case his plan failed, he didn't want Thor's hopes to be up. However, he changed his face anyways. "Now, what's doing it?"

Thor and the short man both stared at him, neither of seeming to want to give up the information.

Loki rolled his eyes, annoyed. "There are people out there, people being hurt by this threat, yes?" he asked and looked at the both of them. "So shouldn't someone go protect them?"

"Yes, but not you." Tony said.

"Where is it?" Loki asked again, and Tony went to go look at something. He saw a few brief videos of a leafy area and some trees being blown up, that was all he needed. "Alright." Loki said, then teleported into the fray.


	12. Chapter 12

hor watched his brother disappear just as the other Avengers made their way into the room. They all smiled when they saw him, since they hadn't seen him since his father had died.

"Thor, it's good to see you! You have great timing," Steve said before everyone's attention was turned to the screen. Tony seemed for a minute like he was going to continue his tirade against Loki, but he shook his head. On the screen, flashes of something metal and large that looked similar to the Midgardian spider suddenly appeared.

"Someone's seen the movie 'Wild Wild West' a few too many times." Thor did not get the reference, but that was not something new, although he presently understood more about humans then he had at the beginning.

"Alright, let's go stop it," Steve announced and headed to the elevator along with everyone else. The elevator was large. It had to be to contain all of them, including the Hulk, even though he hadn't made an appearance yet. The doors closed and they ascended quickly, much more quickly than any of the other elevators that Thor had been on. However the whole time, Tony was staring daggers at him. The doors opened not long after, and while the others boarded the Quinjet, Thor used Mojolnir to fly to where the metal spider creature was supposed to be. It didn't take long for him to get there, only, when he arrived,the metal spiders that had been knocking down buildings in the video had been stopped.

Tony stopped next to him, apparently in conversation with the others. He hadn't gotten a communication device, and honestly, he found them unpleasant to wear, so that was alright with him.

"Oh and L-" Tony cut himself off as he caught sight of what was going on.

"Who is that?" Captain America's voice said loudly through Tony's ear piece with awe. Apparently the Quinjet could see what was happening even if they weren't quite there yet.

It was Loki. He was freezing the spider-like machines' legs to the ground with ice. The tops of the spiders had machine guns, and when they tried to fire in his direction, Loki teleported nimbly away. Thor was stunned by how powerful his brother was, and as such, didn't so much as move an inch as he watched his brother teleport away again and again while using fire, or something like fire, to burn away the machine guns on top and freezing the legs to the ground. There were ten machines, but Loki was managing them just fine.

Thor saw a flash of blue out of the corner of his eyes and found himself looking at the Avengers, Hulk now included, who were staring at his brother in awe.

"Seriously who is that?" Clint asked as they watched Loki teleport between freezing the legs and taking out the guns on top all while seeming to easily avoid all the gun fire.

"That's my brother," Thor said proudly and grinned as Steve's jaw dropped.

Clint and the Natasha's eyes both narrowed. "What?" Clint said angrily, even though Loki was taking care of the bad guys singlehandedly. Although, Thor supposed he shouldn't blame the archer too much for his reaction; after all, his brother had taken over his mind and made him do some pretty terrible things.

Thor smiled widely as he saw how powerful his brother was. He was very glad that this Loki wasn't his Loki. Thor couldn't imagine what terrible things his Loki would do with power like the Loki in front of him had.

The other Avengers finally snapped out of it and went to help Loki, even though Thor wasn't sure he needed it, because he had already frozen three spiders to the ground and taken out all the machine guns but one. Thor found himself just watching as Loki jumped and teleported in mid-air to avoid gun fire from the last remaining gun. Loki then used green fire to get the last gun before landing on one of the few pieces of asphalt that wasn't scorched, frozen or torn through.

He turned in a tight circle before stopping abruptly with his hands up, ready to fire either fire or ice at a moment's notice. "Surrender now, or else," he yelled to the people in the metal spiders. They didn't make any move to get out, even though their spiders were frozen to the ground and their guns were all gone. All that was left of the big thick metal spiders was their outer armor, and the beings inside them foolishly figured that it could protect them. Loki rolled his eyes and disappeared. He came back with two men from inside the spiders, one in each arm, which he handed to Thor, teleporting away again. Thor took the two criminals to the SHIELD cars which had shown up sometime during the fight and handed them over to SHIELD just in time for Loki to show up and to give him two more. The agents of SHIELD looked at him curiously, but Loki was already gone.

"Who is that?" one of the agents asked him, as Loki showed up again with another two criminals in his hands. Thor gave him a smile and Loki grinned back before disappearing, though he reappeared a moment later, arms empty. Thor wondered why Loki had stopped, but saw that the other Avengers had the other people from the other spiders in custody. SHIELD was putting all of them in handcuffs and leading them into the back of several different vehicles with the name SHIELD on them. The other Avengers had convened into a little semi-circle; Thor went to go join them and saw Loki do the same.

"Hello," his brother said brightly to the group. Of course he had no idea that he was not well liked, but after a moment of scanning their angry faces he seemed to understand because the smile faded from his face. "More people he's incurred the anger of?" Loki asked a little bitterly and Thor nodded sadly.

It wasn't this Loki's fault that his other self had made the Avengers angry. Then again, it wasn't the Avengers fault that they didn't understand or believe that this wasn't the same person who had tried to take over.

"Because of the attack on Midgard?" Loki asked.

Natasha's and Clint's eyes narrowed again, most likely because Loki spoke so nonchalantly about it; but then again, Loki didn't know much about it. Clint especially glared at Loki, looking as if he were trying to kill him with his eyes. "Why do you look different?" Clint asked, his dislike of Loki coating his voice.

Loki blinked, remembering that he was wearing another person's face, then frowned. "Because Thor told me that I would confuse people if I were to help them using my own face."

"Why are you here at all?" Clint said, hostility clear in his voice.

Loki appeared to be angry, and for a second Thor was sure that Loki was going to do something, but he simply looked at Thor.

"I grow tired of this. You explain it to them and I'll look for him, okay?" he said. Thor nodded, after which Loki teleported out. The entire Avengers team looked at him even though he had already explained it to Tony.

"What's going on?" Clint asked, hostile. The others looked like they wanted the answer as well.

Thor sighed, if his conversation with Tony was any indication, then this conversation was not likely to go very well either. He expected a sarcastic comment from Tony like before, but he seemed to be deep in thought.

"Loki's, well..." Thor had never been good with words; that had always been Loki's strong suit. He had only realized after he had lost Loki how much he had depended on his brother's quick tongue to get them out of messy situations, ones that Thor had more often than not gotten them into in the first place. He liked to think that he was getting better, but at the moment, he certainly didn't have any eloquence. "He's not the Loki that you know," he concluded,and the Avengers all started talking at once, which made it impossible for Thor to tell what they were all saying.

"Well," Clint said as soon as the flurry of talking was over.

"Could you repeat what you just said one at a time?" Thor asked, and he saw Clint's anger grow. "I could not hear anything because you were all talking at the same time," he explained.

"Why is he here on earth with you?!" Tony shouted.

"I told you friend, he is not the Loki who came here and tried to take over your planet."

"Then who is he?" Steve asked suspiciously, but not as hostilely as some of the others.

"He is my brother from a different universe, where he never tried to take over Asgard." That only ignited even more conversation that took place over each other. Thor could hear words like 'stupid' and 'crazy' being tossed around, and he got the gist of what everyone was saying. Everyone – or at least the most vocal of them: Tony and Clint – seemed to think that there was no way that Loki could be telling the truth. In fact, he was pretty sure they thought that Loki was incapable of ever telling the truth. The Hulk hadn't said anything though, and until Banner came back, it was unlikely they'd know Banner's opinion on the matter. Steve and Natasha seemed to be thinking it over.

Thor, after a few minutes of listening to them arguing, realized he had had enough. "This Loki is not a criminal!" Thor shouted and another one of the SHIELD agents decided to take advantage of the brief pause in the conversation to say.

"Fury is on his way, and he wants to talk with Loki."

* * *


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers. 
> 
> Sorry it's so short the next chapter will be much longer.

Thor tried to remain calm. This was what he had wanted anyways, to talk to SHIELD, to talk to Fury, to get information about his brother's whereabouts. Still, now that they were here with SHIELD, he was worried that they might hurt Loki. Though, he wasn't sure if that was possible considering the display of magic that Loki had just shown.

"Okay," he said briefly to the SHIELD agent before he turned his attention to the other Avengers. "Would the Loki you know have helped us?" Thor asked instead, and he saw some doubt on Tony and the Captain's faces. However, Clint did not seemed moved at all, and he still couldn't tell what the Black Widow or Hulk were thinking.

"It's a trick of some sort. Loki's full of them," Clint stubbornly said and his hand was inching towards his quiver. Thor was not fond of that, and though it was doubtful that Clint could hurt his brother much, Thor kept his eye on it. If Clint so much as drew that bow against his brother he would snap it in half.

"Believe me, the last thing I want to do is defend Loki," Tony said hesitantly after a few more moments of silence, "but if Reindeer games could do all that magic, then why didn't he the last time he was here?"

"I don't know, maybe he got stronger," Clint said, seeming to clutch on to anything that wasn't the truth.

"If he got stronger, then why would he be here fighting the villains instead of helping them?" Steve asked slowly. His eyes were focused on the torn up ground, but it was clear from the slight frown on his face that he was trying to figure it out.

"I don't know! Maybe because he's crazier than a bag of cats," Clint said using Banners' words from before. "Besides, it's probably all part of his plan."

"There is only one plan," Thor said and this time the others all turned to him. "We are here to capture my brother Loki."

"You had him right next to you!" Clint yelled, curling his hands into fists and clenching them tightly. The subject of Loki had always brought out this reaction in the normally cool and controlled guy.

Thor shook his head. "No, Loki has come here to help me capture himself, the Loki that you all know."

"How can you be sure?" the Black Widow finally asked. "You know more than any of us that he's good at hiding his plans. He made you think he was dead just so he could avoid going back to jail. What makes you think that after everything that's has happened between you two you can trust him?"

Thor opened his mouth and closed it again. Why did he trust Loki? Just because of the memories? No, it was more than that. It was his brother's powers, countenance and the way that he was so different from the Loki he knew. He couldn't explain it, not in words, but he just  _knew_  that Loki wasn't the brother who had tried to kill him.

Thor shrugged and said. "I just do. He's been in Asgard for over a week and it's clear to me that he simply isn't the Loki that I know," Thor admitted honestly. "He's different; he's not full of anger; he's happy." The happy part was probably what that made him believe most. Loki hadn't really been happy in years. He would be pleased that his plans were going his way, maybe he would smile because he was about to have revenge, but real, actual happiness he hadn't seen from his brother in ages.

Thor was again reminded how he had failed Loki. If he had only been there for him when he had found out the truth about his heritage, things would probably be different now.

That was another thing, this Loki willingly talked about things that his Loki would have never brought up in conversation. At least not with him, and definitely without trying to kill him first.

"Well, you'll excuse me if I don't take your word for it," a familiar voice said and Thor turned to see Fury.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry guys! Normally I don't give excuses like this, but it's been so long I feel like I owe you guys an explanation. I lost my beta and I've been trying to find another one, but it hasn't been going well. So I'm going to keep trying, but until then it's just going to be unbetaed for a bit. ? Truly sorry again for how long it's been!

"Where is he Thor?" Fury asked and Thor wasn't sure what it was, maybe it was the fact that Fury only had one eye like his father that made him look so intimidating.

"He's looking for Loki." Fury frowned.

"You know on the way here I thought I maybe misheard when they told me that you think that the Loki here isn't your brother but what?"

"He's from another reality." Thor said and Fury seemed like he didn't believe it.

"Another reality." his said incredulously.

"Yes, one where he didn't do anything of stuff he's done here. Well, he still let the Jotun into Asgard and some other things, but Midgard, this Loki hasn't been to Midgard in centuries.

"Where is he Thor?" Fury demanded.

"I don't know, he's looking for himself." Thor said Loki could be anywhere especially since this version of him could teleport and seemed to be much more powerful than his Loki.

"Of course he is." Fury said seeming to be irritated.

"Call him back." Thor shrugged.

"I can't I don't know where he is." Loki blinked in existence and looked at Fury.

"Are you S.H.I.E.L.D?" He asked and Fury nodded.

"Fantastic, I have some questions for you." Loki said.

"Great because I have a few of my own."

~o~

"Where did you last see Loki?" Loki asked.

"Right here." Loki's heart lept for a moment before he remembered that the one-eyed man probably thought that he was Loki.

"I am not your Loki." He said irritated at having to explain this yet again and tried of no one believing him.

"Really? Because you look a lot like him." Loki rolled his eyes and changed into the man in front of him.

"Now I look like you, does that mean that I am you?" he asked the one-eyed man looked less than amused. Loki saw that he wasn't helping things and shifted back to the other man.

"I helped you capture the men in the metal spiders." Loki said instead.

"One good thing doesn't make up for everything you've done." The one-eyed man said with a sharp shake of his head.

"I didn't do anything!" Loki yelled angrily, Loki closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. Yes, he hadn't done those things but still had urges sometimes to do bad things, usually in a fit of rage. Normally Thor knew when he felt that way and made sure that Loki knew that he was good person, but Thor wasn't saying anything.

Loki remembered that the Thor in front of him wasn't his brother and apparently didn't seem to realize he needed him the way his own brother would. He was alone. He hadn't been alone since the day Thor had found him. Loki focused on his breathing like Thor usually had him do in the rare occasions in which Loki was about to explode. Thor. Thor, he missed his Thor. His Thor who knew him, and knew exactly how to help him when he needed it. He did not even have to ask, Thor just did it automatically like Loki did it for him. Loki took a few more deep breaths in response to a voice in his head that sounded remarkably like Thor telling him to be calm and breathe in and out. Loki opened his eyes again much more calm and much less likely to yell, argue, or destroy things than he had been a few moments ago.

"Are you okay Loki?" Thor asked finally noticing now that Loki was okay again, that Loki hadn't been. But he was calm now much more calm and was able to talk calmly and rationally.

"Thor and I only have 2 weeks, so we can't waste time on frivolities. You want Loki captured as do I. And as I am sure everyone else here wants your Loki to be contained so he cannot hurt anyone. I promise I will answer what questions I can, as long you realize that I am not Loki and so I will not able to answer all your questions. I will do so since if I don't it will detract from my overall goal, which is to bring Loki back home back where he belongs, even if it in a cage. If you do not agree to help me, me and Thor will search without your help and may not find him. I think it's in your best interest to help us, don't you?" Loki asked.

"They call you the god of lies. The god of chaos." Loki nodded that what they had called him before.

"How can we trust the god of lies?" the one eyed man asked.

"The question you need to ask yourself is, can you afford not to? If you don't then Loki is likely planning something as we speak and if his first plan was to capture Midgard and rule it, I know myself enough to know that his next plan will probably be even less kind to your world."

"Are you threatening us?" the one eyed man asked and Loki rolled his eyes.

"No, I'm just telling you that from what I've heard from Thor. Only bad things will happen to your planet if he remains free. So help me find him. Please." Loki added because it sounded like something that the Loki they were used to probably wouldn't say.

"Please?" The man called Tony said again like he had never heard the word before.

"Yes, please." Loki said again since that word seemed to have gotten such a response the first time around.

"We can't trust you." the one eyed man said with a shake of his head. Loki shook his head like it didn't matter, even though it hurt

"Then don't. Don't trust me. Watch me, but help me because I am the best chance you have at finding him." Loki said with every bit of confidence he possessed. No one would know him the way he did. He felt several sets on him scrutinizing him, he just hoped that they made the right decision.

"How about this: you answer our questions, we answer yours." Loki shrugged that seemed fair enough.

"Alright, I'll answer what I can." he agreed.

"Loki." Thor said and Loki looked up and caught the meaning in his brother's eyes. "Right, so long as it doesn't go against our laws." he amended, since telling certain things to Midgardians or any other not Asgardians was against the law. Still, there were few questions that would be covered under that and he mostly agreed with the rules.

"Now do we have an accord?" Loki asked holding his hand out to the one eye man who eyed his hand like it was likely to turn into an bliglesnipe and bite him. However, he managed to put his hand briefly in his just long enough to shake it before releasing his hand again.

"Yes, we do, now come with me." He said and headed into one of the Midgardian vehicles. He looked at Thor who looked worried.

"You said that this planet would have the most information about Loki." he reminded Thor who nodded. "Then why do you look so worried?" he asked Thor who tried unsuccessfully to hide the worry that he was feeling. Loki stepped forward to join the one eyed man in the vehicle and found a moment later that Thor was standing right by his side.

"You're not going anywhere without me." Thor promised and Loki found himself smiling even as he entered the strange small vehicle that couldn't even seem to leave the ground.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers

Thor sat down right next to him and they were across from the one-eyed man.

"What is your name?" Loki asked since they were never properly introduced. The man stared at him for a long moment with his one eye, which Loki found unfair because it reminded him of his Father.

"Director Fury." Loki found the corner of his mouth quirking finding it amusing how well the man's last name seemed to fit his personality, but kept the thought to himself.

"Hello Director Fury. May I ask where we are going?" Loki asked politely, but he was unsure whether or not he was actually going to get an answer to his question or not.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters," Director Fury answered after a long time.

"What is this shield?" Loki asked Thor since all he could picture was a very large shield, but he had a feeling that wasn't quite what it was.

"It helps people and it helps the Avengers sometimes." Loki frowned.

"What are the Avengers?" Loki asked.

"The group that helped you take down the metal spiders," Thor explained and Loki nodded.

They were quite a strong and capable group of Midgardians. If he wasn't so hated by all of them he could see becoming friends with them like Thor obviously was. Not that they had actually done much, he had most of it taken care of by then.

"They are your friends, right?" Loki asked him and Thor nodded. He could see a light in Thor's eyes that said he was fond of them.

"I'm glad you have friends while I'm...not…with you," Loki said slowly and while that was true he also felt a little jealous, however he was able to mostly squash those feelings.

"I haven't seen them much since mother and father died," Thor said sadly and Loki looked at the ground too, he remembered how difficult their death had been for he and his Thor. In this world, this Thor had had so much responsibility thrust on him and no one to take any of it away. There was silence until the vehicle stopped. The doors opened again and there was a large building in front of them.

"Normally I'd do this on the helicarrier but seeing as you damaged the last one I decided not to take the risk." Loki rolled his eyes.

"I told you, I did-"

"-Yeah, well, I couldn't take the chance of history repeating itself." Loki nodded, he supposed that made sense even if he didn't like it. The building had several stories and was made of shiny metal and glass. It was also surrounded on the outside by green, well cut grass.

It was impressive, he supposed, for a Midgardian building, but since he lived in an Asgardian castle it paled in comparison. Loki did his best to make sure he was aware of his surroundings without looking too much like it. He was aware of Fury's dislike for him and didn't fully trust him not to try to capture him.

Thankfully, Thor was there and Loki's own magic was powerful enough so that even if several S.H.E.I.L.D. agents tried to capture him, it wouldn't work in their favor. Loki walked into the building and looked around. He wasn't sure what normal Midgardian building looked like since Tony's was the first building he had ever been in on Midguard, except for the shop that sold that great beverage that Loki had found while he was waiting for Thor to catch up. Inside the building, there was a long desk across the front entrance. They went past that area though and stopped in front of two metal doors. Fury hit a button that Loki hadn't noticed yet and the button lit up. The bottom level of the building seemed to have a few doors and the long desk but nothing else.

Loki's attention was turned back to the doors when a beep sounded and the doors opened revealing a metal room. Loki didn't like the idea of being stuck in the metal room with Fury, but he had promised. He just had to the hope the Director would keep his promise as well, after all, they both wanted the same thing. Loki made his way into the metal room at the same time as Thor and Fury, both of them faced the front as soon they entered and so Loki did the same. He looked around the metal room wondering what it's purpose was, but he didn't have to wonder long as he felt the sensation of being lifted up. It was some sort of transportation device. Crude, yes, but he supposed most things compared to Asgardian standards were. The doors opened again and Loki found himself facing several agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. with their guns pointed at him. Only their guns were of a different design than the ones he had seen on the streets and he could feel the power in them. He looked at Fury angrily.

"I thought we had an agreement?"

"They're here to make sure you keep up your end of the deal. If you don't have any evil plans then you don't have anything to worry about." Loki sighed, but realized if he were in the Director's shoes he'd have probably have done the same thing, since the Loki of this world seemed so dangerous and unpredictable.

"Alright, but if they try harm me or Thor in any way you will be sorry," Loki said, but exited the metal room, even though what he wanted to do was teleport away. He tested the air of the room to make sure the Midgardians hadn't placed magic suppression on the floor or anywhere in the building. He wasn't sure if the humans had that technology, but it was better to be safe than sorry. In fact, he should have done so while he was outside, but he had been distracted. Thankfully though, the entire building seemed clean of magic dampeners.

That made him feel significantly better. If the humans attempted to attack him he could just teleport out, even if he would have to take Thor with him. If he had to it would deplete him of a lot of magic energy, still he wouldn't leave his brother alone, even if he did seem friendly with them.

On the new level, Loki saw only doors, black ones with silver knobs. Fury nodded at the S.H.E.I.L.D. men who moved their weapons so they were no longer pointing directly at Loki but up at the ceiling. He knew though that within a moments notice they could be pointed at him again. If they were anything like the weapons on top of the machines, then they were dangerous weapons, which was why he took a moment to coat his skin with a little extra magic that would destroy the projectiles on contact, or protect him if they were energy based.

"Come with me," Fury said and Loki had no choice but to follow him. He and Thor stayed with him as Fury led them through a series of hallways that would have confused and disorientated a being who didn't notice and memorize such details automatically. Left, right, left, left, left. Right. In fact, he was pretty sure that Fury was going about getting to their location in a round about way to try to make sure that they were disorientated, which didn't work. Finally though, Fury stopped and Loki and Thor followed suit along with men with the guns that had followed them the whole time. Loki checked again for magic dampening fields inside the room only for it to come back clean. Fury gestured for him to go first but Loki didn't want to.

Thor took the lead which Loki was thankful for. Surely they wouldn't hurt the king of Asgard and the man who helped them through so many battles in the past, even if they didn't like Loki, right? It certainly wouldn't be smart. Thor was king now and if he wanted to he could lead a battle against Midgard and they would easily win. He wasn't sure how the battle with Loki had gone down, but one being even a god against the likes of the Avengers he could see not going well. It would be different situation if it was the entire strength of Asgard, the Midgardians would not last long. However, he wasn't sure that Thor would go to battle anyways. Thor seemed to be like his Thor, much wiser than he had been in the past and less hungry to for unnecessary battle.

The other side of the room was just a metal table and three chairs. One of one side and two on the other. There was a glass on the wall that he was sure was meant to be one-way but his eyes saw through such things. There were people on the other side who were looking at him in a way that could only be described and then only lightly as distaste. Loki decided to avert his eyes and pretend that he didn't know that he was being watched by more than Fury.

Instead he sat down next to Thor who had already taken a seat. The men with the guns stood at the door with their weapons pointed down but ready to use should the need come up. Fury took his seat on the other side of them and stared at them for a long moment. It was unfair that he had one eye and reminded him so much of his father. He reminded him of his father so much that it made him a little uncomfortable, but he always had done his best to hide when he wasn't completely comfortable and when he was hurting. Though Thor had helped him a lot recently in the latter.

"Alright, I'm going to ask a question and if you can answer it then you get to ask a question, sound fair?" Fury asked and Loki nodded though he wasn't really sure if he could answer any of Fury's questions, since he still knew very little about the battle that had taken place here.

"Alright, what are you doing back here?" Fury asked, although his face was calm he could practically feel the anger being directed towards him by the man.

"I told you, I'm here to hunt down Loki. Now, have you seen him on earth since..." he looked at Thor.

"Since I let you know he escaped," Thor supplied.

"Yes." Fury answered which made Loki's heart race. Finally they were about to get some answers.

"How many times? Where?" Loki asked anxiously.

"I gave an answer, now you have to answer mine and I still don't believe you on your last one." Loki shook his head. If he kept on doing this Fury's way they were going to be there all day.

"Director," he said respectfully, "if we continue on this way it's going to take all day and you still probably won't believe what I tell you."

"I don't think we have any other option," the Director said with a shake of his head. Loki shook his head as well but for another reason, that reason being that the Director was wrong. He looked at Thor who stared at him confused for a moment before realization and shock come to his face.

"Loki you cannot mean-" Thor said with a shake of his head.

"We'll be here all day if we don't," Loki countered.

"But it's…" Thor trailed off and Loki knew that it was difficult to describe what it was. It wasn't forbidden, but it was not used a lot because it was considered invasive. With criminals it was rarely used, because most of the time the criminals were sentenced because of proof either numerous eye witness or spells that looked into their mind or the minds of the victims. Since the Asgardians cared little about motive the spell wasn't used much and to be used both parties had to be willing.

"I know, but I don't want to spend all day here anymore than I'm sure you want to spend all day here with me," he said to Fury who was looking between the two, most likely trying to figure out what they talking about.

"What are you talking about and why does Thor seem so against it?" Fury asked suspiciously.

"It's a truth spell," Loki said and hurried when from the look on Fury's face he was obviously getting the wrong idea. "It does not make you tell the truth, it just colors your words with one color if your lying and another if you tell the truth." Fury looked reluctant and Loki wasn't a big fan of the spell himself, but it was the only way he knew to speed up this process. "Thor will cast it," Loki said and Thor turned to him shocked.

"I will not! You know I don't like that spell!" Thor said. Loki shook his head.

"Thor, do you really want to waste a whole day here instead of looking for your brother?" Loki asked Thor.

Thor seemed to consider that for a moment before saying "Why me? You're much better at spells." Thor had to have some magic now that he was king and used Gungnir, although he had left Gungnir at home and had only taken Mjolnir.

"Because Fury's unlikely to trust a spell that I cast," Loki said looking pointedly at Fury who didn't deny it, Thor shook his head.

"I can't remember how, I don't think I ever learned the spell," Loki shook his head in annoyance, but leaned over and whispered the spell in his brother's ear. Thor nodded but looked nervous.

"Thor, you are king. You were imbued with the power of kings at your coronation, now do the damn spell," Loki said fondly, but at the same time irritated. Thor nodded and whispered the words under his breath.

"Right, let's see if it worked," Loki said clasping his hands together. "Say the truth or a lie."

"I love when you bring your family problems here," Fury deadpanned, directing his comment at Thor. His words were accompanied with a red sort of smoke. Loki nodded.

"Red must be for lies for Thor, the colors differ depending on the caster. I've only done it a few times but usually for me, black is a lie and green is the truth. I suppose I should make sure it works for me too." Loki smiled "I didn't break your favorite sparing staff and bribe Volstagg with a weeks work of dessert to take the blame." Thor looked angry especially since his words were colored red.

"That was you!" Loki had already told his Thor, but he was sure that Thor's Loki hadn't told Thor this tidbit.

"Yes. Although you were angry for far longer than either Volstagg and I either expected."

"I loved that staff," Thor said angrily.

"It was just a stick Thor," Loki said, rolling his eyes.

"But it was my-"

"Hey, can we get back to the point here," Fury said interrupting their squabble. Loki nodded.

"Alright, now we have to find the color for truth." As much as he wanted to start with 'I am not Loki' he had to go for something simple something that Fury was sure to know was the truth.

"I like magic," Loki said, finding this to be the simplest truth he could think of. His words were colored in gold and Loki smiled. Just like Loki, the colors Thor had adopted as his own were the color of the spell. They looked at Fury expectantly who sighed.

"I am the director of S.H.E.I.L.D.,"he said and his words were colored in gold.

"Alright now that we've gotten the preliminaries out of the way, I'm going to tell you my whole story again and maybe this time you'll believe me," Loki said, slightly irritate.d "I am Loki of Asgard and Jotunheim. I am not from this world or this universe, but from an alternate one where I never committed the crimes against humans that I did here. In fact, I know very little about what I did do here other then I am not well liked for what I did, though I've heard enough to figure that I am not liked for good reason. I came to this world because I messed up a spell that I was making Thor for his birthday."

"You didn't tell me this," Thor interrupted. Loki blinked as he realized that he hadn't until then.

"Well, at first I didn't understand you weren't my Thor and then you didn't believe me and then I just sort of forgot," Loki explained and the soft golden glow accompanied his words. "Besides, it was supposed to be a surprise for you. I'm probably going to have to start all over again, only this time with a containment spell over my lab," Loki trailed off as he realized he was getting off topic.

"Anyways, like I said, I'm here for the Loki of this world, to bring him back to Asgard so he doesn't hurt anyone else."

"How can I trust this?" Fury asked still suspicious.

"You don't trust me, that I understand, but surely you trust Thor? He has battled with your people, yes? Saved many lives? Thor would never endanger anyone if he could help it." Again, gold was shown with his words. "It's his spell, even if I told him the words, Thor knows enough to recognize if the words I told him were wrong or not right?" He asked Thor hoping he was right Thor nodded.

"I may not have remembered, but I know that Loki's words are the correct ones. "

"It's Thor's spell, not mine, I have absolutely no control over it," Loki said. Fury still looked unsure, then again he was Midgardian and was unfamiliar with the spell they were under. It was possible he still thought it was a trick, or was just having difficulty accepting that Loki was not the Loki he knew.

"So you didn't come to earth 2 years ago?" Fury asked still suspicious.

"I haven't been to earth in centuries until now." Loki said with a shake of his head. "I have to admit, it's much nicer than the last time I was here, though maybe a bit stiffer and colder. "

"Alright for the moment I'll allow us to continue based on the assumption you are telling the truth, even though I still don't believe you." Loki nodded, he knew that even with the spell the man would probably have reservations.

"Do you know where Loki is?"

"No," Fury said his words tinged with half red and half gold. A half truth then, how interesting. Fury looked angrily at the colored words.

"But we are tracking his activities when he pops up." Fury went on and this time the aura was pure gold.

"What has he done here?" Thor asked.

"We aren't sure, we've only seen him in a few places," he said slowly still seeming hesitant on sharing the information.

"What places?" Loki said and Fury seemed even more hesitant to answer.

"Director," he said using his title hoping that might get him somewhere.

"Tokyo, Ghana, and Helsinki." Loki frowned trying to place all those places, he had read of countries before in books from this land, but it had been awhile ago, and it was rather fuzzy to say the least.

"Where are those?" Loki said, hating to admit that he didn't know. He always hated admitting that he didn't know something. Thor shrugged and he looked at Fury who just stared at him, which admittedly was more impressive because of the one eye which reminded him of Father. Loki shrugged.

"Are they close together?" he said and Fury shook his head.

"Okay." There was something he was missing, something important.

"Thor I need to hear the whole story, about your brothers attempt to take over Midgard." Thor nodded but he seemed unhappy about it, not that Loki really blamed him. He was sure it had been quite the trying time to be related to him.

"Alright," Thor said with a nod of his head "I wasn't here at the beginning, I still thought you dead." Thor looked sorrowful. Loki couldn't imagine thinking that Thor was dead, grieving for him only to have him come back and...do awful things. "However, Heimdall saw you and according to him you suddenly showed in Midgard coming from what looked like the Tesseract." Loki blinked the Tesseract was somehow involved in this? How? Before before Loki could ask Thor had already continued with his story "Heimdall saw you, well him kill numerous S.H.E. . agents." Which was why Fury didn't like him. He understood that. He had never been much of a warrior and even less of a leader. However, on the rare occasions when he had been in charge, he had felt deeply responsible for his men. For any of them that had died, he had taken the shame and grief of their deaths upon himself. Loki made sure that his face was unreadable before he said,

"Then what..." because Thor had paused.

"He stole the Tesseract," Thor said. Stole the Tesseract, for what purpose? Why would he steal the Tesseract? Yes it was an incredibly powerful weapon, but what would someone need that much power for? Loki chose not to ask the question though in case through the course of Thor's story the answers would be provided, however if they weren't he would ask. "Then he brainwashed some of the members of S.H.E.I.L.D. including Agent Barton, as well as a close friend of mine."

"Who's Clint?" Loki asked.

"The archer you met in battle," Thor informed him.

"The one didn't like me even more than the man I tried to kill?" Loki asked and Thor nodded.

"What about your friend? Did he survive?" Loki asked, nervously wanting the answer to desperately be yes. He knew that he had done a lot to Thor in this reality, but he didn't want to add 'killed friend' to the list.

"Yes," Thor said and Loki nodded well at least there was that.

"Sorry," Loki said as he realized the more he interrupted, the more it seemed like Thor was struggling to say what he needed to tell him. "Then what?" Loki asked.

"Well he killed several Midgardians civilians that time." Civilians? They were warriors. They had been taught from a young age to only kill other warriors and not to hurt civilians. Why would have Loki abandon those beliefs? Thor seemed to realized where his thoughts were going "He had changed a lot since he fell in the void. I'm still not 100 percent sure what happened in the void, but even though Loki was mad when he fell into it he was changed viscous, angry so much more than on Asgard." Loki nodded although his brain was still trying to process that Loki had killed several civilians, S.H.E.I.L.D. agents and had stolen the Tesseract.

"Go on," he said, determined to know so he could understand Loki and capture him.

"He was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D before I broke him out," Thor said looking like he was trying hard to hide his emotions, but Thor had never been as good with that as he was. Thor was angry and sad.

"I told Loki that I thought he was dead and he accused me of throwing him into the abyss. All I wanted to do was to get him to come home, to stop the madness, but he wouldn't listen, wouldn't hear me. S.H.E.I.L.D. imprisoned him on the helicarrier." Loki was brought back to what Fury had said before entering the building that they were now in. Loki damaged it severely, whatever a helicarrier even was.

"Loki nearly took down the helicarrier, then tried to first brainwash Stark and when that didn't work he tried to kill him by-"

"Throwing him out the window." Loki finished faintly, hoping that that was the last of it but when Thor took a deep breath and Loki knew that his hope had been in vain.

"Loki opened a portal which the Chitauri used to come through." The Chitauri? Those people? Loki nodded as now some of the pieces of the puzzle came together. The Chitauri were the in the service of Thanos who kept killing people hoping to impress death. He didn't know a lot about Thanos other than he was old powerful and that his two obsession were Death and the Infinity Stones. Loki must have encountered Thanos and somehow the two must had made an agreement or something. Had Loki been forced into it? There seemed to be a few more pieces of the puzzle that he was missing, but he was determined to wait until Thor was done before he asked more questions.

"The Chitauri were winning until the Hulk smashed you and Natasha used your scepter to close the portal." Loki frowned, scepter? Thor had never mentioned a scepter before, then again Thor was not a terribly good story teller. He was always forgetting to mention things, then bringing them up later like he was supposed to have known them all along.

"Scepter? What scepter?"

"You showed up with it on Midgard. It is what you used to brainwash everyone. Did I forget to say that?" Thor asked, Loki nodded and saw absently that Fury nodded as well. "It's also what you used in conjunction with the Tesseract to open the portal." Loki nodded, okay another small piece of the puzzle.

"Erik, that is the name of my friend," Thor clarified, "was able to be released from the brainwashing, he used your scepter to close the portal, and Tony the man who you threw out of the window flew the bomb into the void." Again his brother really was the worst story teller that he knew.

"Bomb? What bomb?" Loki said, irritated since he was sure that a bomb had not been mentioned at all.

"Well I'm not sure," Thor said with a shrug, "I just know there was a bomb and that once it went off in the portal, all the Chitauri fell down dead." Loki nodded.

"Telepathic link," he muttered, but Fury apparently heard him and looked at him.

"What was that?" he asked.

"Telepathic link," Loki said again louder "I've only heard and read stories about the Chitauri, but in stories all the Chitauri are telepathically linked to their ships. It makes it easier for them to share information, and fight in unison because apparently telepathic communication can be expressed at least five times as fast as spoken words can." Fury looked to Thor for confirmation but Thor shrugged.

"I just know that Thanos has an unhealthy obsession of killing people. I've never been much into books and now I don't really have time."

"Is that all?" he asked Thor. Thor seemed to think for a minute so Loki turned and asked Fury because he might remember something that Thor forgot.

"Director is that all?" he asked politely.

"You wanted to rule us." Thor nodded in agreement though when Loki looked, so Fury was not making it up. Loki had wanted to rule Midgard? Why? He knew that he tried to rule Asgard, which hadn't worked out well for him, so was he just determined to rule some planet? There was something about this that made the bottom of his stomach seem to disappear.

"What is it brother?" Thor asked, seeming to notice his puzzled face.

"I'm not sure. There something about this that I don't like."

"There are many things about this that I don't like," Thor agreed, but Loki shook his head because that's not what he meant.

"There something that's not adding up." Fury was looking at him intently now. Maybe he had had some of the same thoughts, but didn't want to say anything that might influence his way of thinking.

"What happened to the scepter and the Tesseract?"

"We took the Tesseract home and the humans kept the Scepter." And that was it. If the Asgardians had the Tesseract then it was protected by the destroyer and nothing had ever gotten past the destroyer. However, if Loki was here, he must be going after the scepter.

"He wants the scepteR," he thought aloud. Why? In an attempt to rule earth again? With how well that had gone last time, if he was going to try again he would probably pick an even deadlier way. Either way, if Loki wanted to the scepter that was how they would capture him.

"Why would he would he want the scepter?" Thor asked.

"It doesn't really matter, does it?" Loki said "We can't let him get it and it's our only way to trap him."

"Look, I'm still not sure if I believe you story but you should know we aren't idiots. We figured out that if he's on earth then he probably wants the scepter."

"If you think you can protect it you are kidding yourself," Loki said bluntly. "I don't care if it's your deepest darkest sea, eventually he will find it and steal it back."

"Look I know that we aren't Asgardian but our technology took down the Chitauri and you before so-"

"You don't understand," Loki said shaking his head.

"Okay then, tell me what exactly is it that I don't understand."

"Our magic, mine and his, it's powerful. Maybe he doesn't recognize his full potential yet but eventually he will, be it in months or years. When he does, there will be nothing you can do to keep him from it and whatever he plans to do with it. So our best hope is to put him back in Asgard prison now, where even I could be held."

"I know you think your technology and magic is so much better but-" Loki was tired of arguing with one eyed man, he would only understand one thing. Loki grabbed the Directors arm with his own hand.

"Do you really think that you can protect it?" Loki asked, then released the Directors arm when he looked at Loki like he had turned into a snake, not to mention he had been able to practically feel the guns on his back. He saw the gun lowered from the corner of his eyes when he had released the man. Still, it had given him what he wanted. He focused for a moment then turned to Thor who looked at him with apprehension. Apparently Thor was aware that he was about to do something that was possibly not very smart but it was likely the only way he was going to gain Fury's attention. With a mischievous glint in in his eye, he told his brother,

"I'm going to steal the scepter to prove that I'm right."


	16. Chapter 16

"Loki no!" Thor said horrified and Loki rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to give it right back," he said, "they're never going to believe me. Not in 2 weeks, not in 2 months without concrete proof." Thor looked at Fury probably to gauge his reaction to Loki's plan.

"He can't hear us," Loki explained with a nod of his head Fury's lack of reaction at Loki's statement "He hears us arguing about something that he has no hope of understanding," Loki explained. Thor did not seem to like his plan much so Loki interrupted Thor before he could speak. "Look you want to catch him, right?" Thor nodded. "If I told him before, of my plan, he would tell the others and then the only way I can see to capture Loki would be taken away. If I take it without them noticing and then bring it back, then we can still use the way I want and then we have a chance of actually doing this within the time limit." Thor still looked unsure.

"All you have to do is keep Fury from alerting security if the illusion is to falter. I should be able to do the rest and I swear it will be back in less than two minutes from when I steal it," Loki said trying assure Thor and himself that his idea wasn't nearly as bad as it sounded. "I'll give it back," Loki swore again before teleporting away.

He should be completely invisible to everyone in the area. Due to his stealth and magic, no one should notice him. It was a good thing that Fury had been to the place where the scepter was being kept, or else he wouldn't have been able to gather the location just from touching him. It had been a little more difficult though getting it from his arm than it would have been if he had been able to use Fury's head. He was sure though, that if he had tried such a thing, he would have been shot with those guns. That probably would have been less than pleasant.

He walked through the metal halls that seemed to be very prominent in Midgard. He didn't have to walk far before he saw it. He had never seen it before except in Fury's memory. The blue gem in the middle of the scepter made something inside of him long for it for some reason that he could not immediately fathom.

He shook his head to clear it as he remembered that time was of the essence and he did not want Fury to realize it was gone until he could talk him out of making alarms go off. The scepter was kept in a room that seemed off in some respect. Loki put his hand up to test the area to see what was different about it, and found that it had some sort of electric shielding. The electric shielding was probably meant to be stopped by correctly inputting some sort of code into a crudely based number and biological scanning system. Loki closed the distance between him and the system quickly then touched the scanner and pad, quickly bypassing the both of them. Thankfully, at the moment there seemed to be no humans in the room.

Loki focused on the scepter for a moment and on all the minor details, just as quickly but as thoroughly as he could. Not long after, he closed his hand over the scepter while he simultaneously created an illusion of the scepter as he pulled it out of its holder. Loki had to stop himself from gasping as a sudden feeling of power and control swept over him. It made him feel so...good and strong, like he could do anything. He prepared to teleport and as an after thought decided to dampen electronic waves fields in the area. That way if they were monitoring the scepter and found the readings strange, they wouldn't be able to let anyone know of their suspicious.

Loki teleported to see himself and Thor arguing about Bliegesnipes. He also saw Fury looking very angry as he had probably tried to steer the illusions back towards the right topic of conversation and it obviously hadn't worked. Loki did the same dampening spell for electronically based things as he had done in the place that he had just came from. Loki was about to show himself when he found himself looking at the scepter again. If he showed himself than he would have to give the scepter back. There was something so alluring about the scepter, something that made him want to keep it. It's power called to him, it made him want to drown in the sweet delicious p-.

"Stop talking about whatever the hell you're talking about let's get back to business!" Fury shouted, thankfully throwing Loki out of whatever he had been in. Loki appeared and all the guns were leveled at him as they noticed him and what was in his grasp. He had to work hard to keep himself from falling into that feeling again and to also be aware of his surroundings. He held his hand that wasn't holding the scepter up and held the scepter pointing at the ground.

"I am not here to cause you harm. I merely did this to show you that if my intention was only to get the scepter than I needn't have come back. I could have just teleported anywhere and just had it for myself. We only have two weeks here and I did not want to spend the entire time dealing with frivolities. I only borrowed this to show you that I am serious and to let you know how serious this matter is." Loki took a deep breath to focus on the here and now, and not on the feelings that were coming from the scepter.

"How do I know that's really the scepter and not just an illusion? I've heard you're good at those," Fury asked. There was so much power. So much he could show him. Loki shook his head and tried hard to focus on the here and now. Right now, he didn't want to control anyone and using the pointed end of the scepter was not going to get him any friends. Nor would blasting anything in the room, as it would probably only be seen as an act of aggression. Loki instead threw it to his brother who caught it surprised.

"Does that feel real to you?" Loki asked and Thor looked down at the scepter with a frown. Loki opened his mouth to ask if Thor sensed it as well, but decided against it. It was best for everyone if it went back to its previous location. Loki walked over to his brother and held his hand out for it, Thor still frowned at the scepter for a moment more before handing it back to him.

"I'm going to go put this back and then we are going to talk in-depth," Loki said even as he simultaneously wanted to keep the scepter and get it as far away from him as he possibly could. Fury nodded and Loki teleported back to the facility that the scepter had come from.

 


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Thor or Avengers

Loki was back about 30 seconds later only to see that Fury was on the phone as he had dropped the electric shield when he had left and looking even more angry than he had just 30 seconds ago. The place he had taken the scepter from had definitely noticed the weapons he had neutralized the alarms that would have alerted anyone. He had silenced their communications system until about ten seconds ago, and it would only work to access outside the building. The alarm should be off for at least another 30 minutes during which Fury would hopefully convince them not to turn the alarm back on. The guns, of course, were trained on him and Loki checked his shielding charm again for any small cracks while at the same time putting his hands up placatingly. Fury spoke for another five minutes angrily while Loki didn't move a muscle until he hung up.

"You invaded my facility and stole the scepter." He could tell that Fury was not fond of his latest act in any way, shape, or form. Thor looked at him slightly disapprovingly as well. Normally he would have never been so brash but they only had 2 weeks here and if he hadn't, then he'd still be trying to convince Fury that he wasn't his other self. Besides it had been fun. It had been a long time since he had done something so bold, normally he was too busy doing boring royal duties. He made sure not to let it show on his face that he knew that he was already in trouble with the two for the act. Or at least it had been until he had actually touched the scepter he thought, losing his inner mirth.

"I brought it back," Loki replied even though he knew he didn't make it any better in Fury's mind. His thoughts returned to the scepter. He wanted it back; it was an object of such power and strength. There was something about it...something so alluring, "There's darkness in it," Loki said speaking aloud frowning. "Innate darkness, but also residual shadows from those who have used it in the past. The people who would wield such a weapon tend to have much darkness in their hearts. There is also power, and power easily tempts," he said including himself in that group of people. He looked at Fury.

"It's a dangerous weapon to have, even on your side," he said looking at the man intensely whose glare lessened slightly and he looked more like he was trying to figure him out. Loki blinked and used a much lighter voice though he didn't feel it. "However, it is your realm, and your universe, and it is in your hands because it is your fate which is in the balance. It is in your possession and ultimately up to you what you wish to do with it. I just thought I'd warn you that using it, touching it, or even being close to it may entrench you in darkness." His warning seemed a tad hypocritical as there was still a small part of him that longed for the weapon even having warned against it. He looked at the hand that had held it only moments ago.

"Loki are you okay?" Thor said apparently noticing that he wasn't fully there at the moment. Loki looked at his brother wishing again for just a moment that it was his brother, his own Thor standing there in front of him. He could tell him how much he wanted the scepter and Thor would say all the right things, or at least enough of the right things that would make him forget about the scepter. Loki focused on Thor for a long moment imagining him to be his own Thor. He didn't want something that dark. He didn't. Darkness would only lead to him being unhappy again. Loki shook his head hoping to get rid of the want he felt for the scepter. He looked back up at Fury who was still angry but also seemed to be still be examining him. Right, he had to get back to it now and hopefully Fury would understand.

"I had the scepter in my hand. If I had wanted to keep the scepter I easily could have, but I didn't." He had wanted to and part of him still desired to get it back. "I brought it back to your facility even though I think that anything you might use it for would bring danger. What else can I do to show you I am not your Loki? Because if I was, I surely would have kept the scepter and then disappeared with it showing up days or weeks later with some wicked deed in mind. What possible reason would your Loki have to steal the scepter and then give it back?" Loki asked getting right down to the point.

"What do you want?" Fury asked after a long moment. Finally, he knew that Fury hadn't agreed yet, but at least they had finally gotten to the point where Loki could lay out his plan.

"I want to lay a trap for Loki."

"What? You wanna do what?" Fury asked surprise, anger and cautious all rolled into one.

"I want to set a trap for Loki," Loki repeated this time bringing out his shark grin.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Thor or Avengers. 
> 
> Thanks so much everyone for reading this :)

"Wait! You want them to stay here!" the short angry man also known as Tony Stark shouted angrily. Loki wasn't exactly happy about the arrangement either since most of the people who lived in the tower thought him to be a murderer. He wasn't exactly sure why they were supposed to stay here either, but he assumed that eventually he would be informed. After Loki explained his plan they had relocated to this tower that rose above the rest of the Midgardian city that they were in. The same tower in which he had surprised and enraged the owner of the tower when he had met him only a few hours ago.

"You remember that he demolished this tower last time?" he said pointing his finger at Loki.

Loki frowned at the impoliteness of the gesture then a little deeper as the comment hit him."I told you I did no such thing."

Mr. Stark turned to him, his finger still pointed at him and his mouth opened like he was determined to kept arguing. Then his eyes scanned Loki's face for something that Loki wasn't sure about or if he found it.

"Can't you find some place else to put him?" The man though he sounded a lot more like a boy who was complaining that things didn't go his way.

"Stark, your tower is the securest place for the two of them while we figure out if we're going to go with Loki's plan,"

"Are you serious?" Loki said outraged "There's a question to if you're going to do it?!"

"Loki," Thor said trying to calm him down. He wasn't on Asgard now, so he was going to take advantage of it and show when he was pissed off rather than hiding under a mask of calmness.

"I stole the scepter. He will steal it no matter what kind of protection you give it sooner or later. If you do not allow me to do this he will get it back and do something terrible with it!" Loki yelled.

"You stole your scepter?" Tony asked trying not to sound impressed.

"I gave it back," he said angrily. "In hopes that if I showed my power they would understand not to underestimate me."

"Look, the fact is that we need time, so either accept a week to think about while you stay here or we can just say no right now," Fury said. Loki glared at him, but he knew that if his plan had any chance of being implemented then he was unfortunately going to have to accept it.

"Fine, we'll stay here won't we, Thor?" Loki said irritated and Thor nodded though he he appeared happier about it then Loki was. He supposed that Thor knew these people and they liked him so it wasn't going to be nearly as trying for Thor as it would likely be for Loki.

"It will good to catch up with the Avengers, it's been too long since I've seen them," Thor said with a happy grin confirming his suspicions. Fury nodded and started heading towards the elevators they had used to reach this floor in this tall tower.

"No! You can't leave them here! What do I look like a babysitter to you?" Fury didn't turn around or acknowledge him in any way; he just left the tower. Tony stared at Thor ,then Loki like he wasn't sure what to make of the two of them.

"Well this is going to be fun," Tony said his voice full of sarcasm and Loki knew in that moment that he rather liked the man.

 


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers
> 
> Thanks so much every for reading :)

The man called Tony said he needed a drink and went to another part of the room. Once there, he began to drink copious amount of something that smelled similar to mead.     

   Loki found himself at the window looking over the massive city. Not even Asgard was as vastly populated as this city. The amount of people was staggering, but rather than being awed by the city he found himself morose. His other self had brought the Chitauri here and many people had died because of him. It was terrifying that he had such darkness in him and that if Thor hadn't been there for him when he had learned of his heritage, this was the path that he would have taken. He would have killed many Midgardians, and worse thousands of Jotuns. Was that darkness still hiding inside him ready to break free? Was he still capable of such harshness?  
  
   “What are you thinking about?” Thor's voice interrupted his thoughts and Loki turned back around to see Thor looking at him. Loki debated for a moment about talking honestly with Thor. He did not lie to Thor anymore, but he did not always answer every question Thor asked him. However, he wanted to know what Thor thought.   
  
   “Is the darkness in your brother inside of me too?” He asked Thor who looked sad then thoughtful.  
  
   “I...I...do not know,” Thor said honestly and Loki smiled because it was just as easy to tell if this Thor was being honest as his own Thor. “You are like him in many ways,” Thor admitted.  
  
   “I am him, Thor,” Loki said with a fond smile that quickly faded away and he looked back around at the city.  
  
   “Why would I try to destroy a city I know nothing about...that I honestly care nothing about?” Loki asked.  
  
   “I have been asking myself that ever since it happened,” Thor said solemnly and Loki turned back around. “The others say that you wanted to rule Midgard.”  
  
   “I guess that makes sense,” Loki said then shook his head “-No it doesn't, but I don't understand anything about your Loki. The fact that he is me means that I should understand him correct? I'm sure if you went to my world you'd understand yourself,” Loki said confused and a little bitterly he sat down on one the many couches in the room and looked down at his knees.  
  
   “That was not a smart move you did there with Fury.” Loki smiled as he looked up.  
  
   “Well here's hoping it worked or else Loki will get the scepter and probably will try to take something over for whatever the reason,” Loki said and then Thor sat at his side.  
  
   “That was a great fight, you moved so seamlessly,” Thor said changing the subject which he was sure he wasn't the only one who was happy about. Loki smiled, he always liked it when Thor complimented him. “You teleport so well. When did you learn that? Why can't my Loki do it?” Thor asked.  
  
   “He can't do it because he's angry and teleporting requires calm and focus. I learned it not long after we reconnected,” Loki said liking that word better than the time his Thor saw him slice his wrist open and then the two of them had a long talk.  
  
   “You used your frost giant abilities,” Thor said slowly and Loki nodded.  
  
   “Yes?” Although he had a feeling where this was going.  
  
   “Loki has only ever used his frost giant abilities once on Heimdall, using the casket. I've never even seen his Jotun form,” Thor said, though he had this Loki’s. Loki smiled and even though maybe it wasn't nice, Loki was still Loki. Loki immediately, without warning, turned into his Jotun form. Causing Thor's eyes in widen in surprise and a little horror at so suddenly seeing his skin turn blue and his eyes turn blood red along with the ridges in his skin.  Thor scrambled for a few moments to move his body as far away from him as he could while not getting up from the couch. Then he stopped and looked furious.  
  
   “Loki!” Thor yelled angrily “I wasn't expecting that; you nearly gave me a heart attack.”  
  
   “Like your heart would ever do anything so stupid as to disobey you, that's more your head's style,” Loki said dismissively.  
  
   “You're not at all embarrassed,” Thor said and Loki nodded indicating he wasn't. He was a frost giant, but that wasn't all he was. The most important part of his identity was not his race but who he was.  
  
   “Thor, you accepted me as I was and helped me accept myself as I was,” He knew that Thor felt guilty for not doing the same to his Loki and wished he could assuage him of that guilt.  
  
   “It's not your fault. You did not make his decisions for him. Loki chose to do what he did,” Loki said but he knew that Thor didn't take much comfort in his words.

* * *

   “You control ice well, how did you...? Thor asked changing the subject again.  He was grateful when Loki answered his question.  

  
   “I learned about my frost giant heritage from my brothers Helblindi and Býleistr.”  
  
   “Your brothers?” An unexpected bout of jealousy raged through him as he was used to being Loki's only brother.  At some level he knew that Loki had brothers, maybe even sisters.  His Loki had killed his biological father and had never tried to know if his biological mother was still alive or even if he had other family. While his Loki said that Thor wasn't his brother, he was used to being the only person he said that to.  “Helblindi was too busy to teach me much, but my brother Býleistr taught me how to use my frost giant abilities,” Loki paused and looked at him like he was trying to read him then smiled.  
  
   “Yes, they are my brothers but aren't my only siblings,” Loki's smile faded and he looked quite morose “I suppose we aren't close here, what with my attempt to destroy Jotunheim and killing of Laufey.”  
  
   “You weren't close with Laufey?”  
  
   “He tried to abandon me, which would have resulted in my death if father hadn't come, so no.” Loki said bitterly, he apparently still knew how to hold a grudge. Thor wasn't sure he could become close to a father who had abandoned him either.  
  
   “Will you tell me what happened?” Thor asked and Loki nodded.  
  
   “Well, after you helped me realize that just because I am a Jotun it doesn't make me any different or a monster or evil, we still had some trouble. The frost giants knew a way in that Heimdall didn't because I had shown them, so I told you and you convinced me that I had to tell father before they tried to invade again using the same way. Father was angry, but I wasn't punished too heavily because I was still quite fragile about finding out about my adoption. However Asgard and Jotunheim were in a delicate state after our trip there and while neither attacked, we lived in fear that war would start any day.”  
  
   “Laufey was old, like father however, and he died before the war could start. His son Helblindi was much more level headed about the whole thing. Helblindi and father reached an agreement. While he was in Asgard I asked him about Laufey and ended up telling him that we were biologically brothers. My biological brothers also weren't fans of Laufey, but had never said a word against him since he was the king and their father. They accepted me as their brother even though I told them of my part in the war. In the end, father got what he wanted,” Loki said a bit bitterly and Thor could see some of the brother he knew in him and somehow that just cemented it further in his mind. This Loki was his brother, just not the one he had grown up with. Loki sighed.  
  
   “You are still angry with father then?”  
  
   “Honestly, some of my bitterness against father has never completely gone away. I understand now what he was trying to do and I thank him for saving my life... but not telling me until I found out by myself, that I am still a little angry at him for. Even though I know it's not fair to blame all of it completely on father, but father and I never did see eye to eye.” Loki said bitterly but with a small twinge of regret mixed into it.  
  
   “Then he is gone as well as mother?” Thor said and Loki nodded the pain showing in his eyes. Loki and mother had always been close, even his Loki had loved her and grieved when she had died, although maybe in a more destructive and bloodthirsty way than the Loki in front of him. The two Loki's were different but also in many ways the same.  
  
   “When our mother died I let Loki out so that we could take care of the aether and it's my fault that he's out again, possibly hurting people,” Thor admitted it had seemed like the only possibility at the time.  
  
   “Thor,” Loki said then paused making Thor look back at him. “I told you everything Loki does or doesn't do is his and nobody else's fault. You cannot blame yourself, you are not responsible for anyone's action but your own,” Thor smiled sadly, Loki was so much like his younger childhood self, the self he had thought he had lost forever. It was bittersweet having Loki here. Bitter because he knew it would not last. Eventually, Loki would have to go back to own time and universe where he belonged and Thor would just be left the memories of how his brother would have been if he had been there for him.


	20. Chapter 20

The two of them fell into silence for a few moments. Loki thinking about the darkness that could be inside of him and Thor was probably thinking about his own Loki and lamenting his brother's descent into the shadows. Loki didn't really understand it, but then again he hadn't gone through what this Loki had gone through. His dark thoughts were interrupted by a shout.

"You're kidding me, Tony!" Loki heard rolled his eyes, it was the irritated Hawkman again, Why was he always yelling? The voice was coming from a few floor away and he could only hear it because of how loud he had yelled.

"I wish!" Tony said sounding just irritated as he had when Fury had told him about it in the first place, he then also notice that Tony had left some time during their conversation. "Fury said we had to babysit them until they came to a decision about some plan of Loki's that involves the scepter...which he stole!" Tony added as an afterthought.

"And gave it back," Loki called loudly defending his actions. This would not do, he couldn't defend himself and hear the conversation if they chose not to yell from where they were. Loki didn't think for more than a moment before he teleported to where the voices were coming from and saw five pairs of eyes staring at him. None of them looked happy or even remotely pleased in any kind of way to see him. He could feel the tension and the hatred wafting in the air and it was suffocating. Everyone except the woman had their arms placed against their chest and seemed to be trying to burn him with their thoughts. Did Midgardians possess that power? He worried for a minute before he realized that it was unlikely and he wasn't burning.

"Loki!" Thor's yelled, worry apparent in his voice. He could imagine his brother scrambling around looking for him as he had teleported without warning.

"I'm with the others Thor!" he yelled hoping Thor would find him before he got too worried.

"You really expect us to believe that," the Hawkman said.

"Fury did not deny it to you did he?" he asked Tony, who after a moment shook his head. Hawkman shook his head more vigorously than Tony had.

"No, I meant that you're not Loki," Loki grit his teeth as he was getting really tired of no one but Thor believing him and even Thor had taken quite some time before he had believed him. It was really getting quite irritating and he could feel the anger coursing through his veins. He had to calm down. He told himself this Hawkman knew nothing of him, the only thing he knew about him was his counterpart who he genuinely had a right to be angry with. Still, he was barely able to collect his anger.

"I'm sorry for what he did to you Hawkman, but I did not do what he did," Loki said with a shake of his head. He managed to say it very politely and it was only due to his vast experiences with arrogant diplomats and foreign kings that made it possible for him to do so.

"It's Hawkeye, you murderer." the Archer spat at him. Loki grit his teeth, then put on the widest smile that he could; the one he used when he was feeling angry, but he was trying hard not to show it. Regardless, he was angry at the Midgardian man. Even the vilest of diplomats and kings, and those Asgardians who hated him would not say such things to him.

"I have tried being polite about this, I understand that what Loki did to you was wrong and I have sympathy for you, but I didn't do this," Loki explained trying to keep his temper in check because when he didn't bad things tended to happen. Hawkeye's shoulders tensed up visibly and he moved a few inches encroaching on his personal space. Loki really wasn't fond of strangers in his personal space unless he was the one trying to do the intimidating, but before he could ask him to move back Hawkeye spoke.

"I don't care what you say, I'm not going to be fooled. The only one reason you're doing this is because there is something you want and I'm not going to fall for your tricks. I'll be here every day to make sure that you don't get it, you crazy homicidal son of a bit -" Loki's calm pleasant facade faded in an instant. No one, no one insulted his mother and combined with everything else he had said he wouldn't allow this tirade against him to continue. He briefly considered atomizing the man, but despite his harsh words against himself and his mother he knew that wasn't the right way to handle this, plus he didn't kill people unless it was in self-defense or a war. He did the first, non-violent thing he could think of to shut him up.

Thor had hit the elevator button multiple times, though he knew that it wouldn't make the elevator rise any faster. He judged the arguing to be a few floors up from where he had lived when he had been with the Avengers. The blond winced when he heard his friend Clint yell things about Loki and he started getting a bad feeling. Loki had never coped very well in situations like this, being this actively antagonized, especially by anyone other than Thor. His brother was likely to react in one of two ways, either with magic or with sharp words, neither would be good.

Thor waited anxiously for the doors to open again so that he could hopefully calm down his brother before he did something rash ...oh too late. As he entered the room, he heard a sharp high pitched bark and noticed a small brown dog on the floor. His were not the only eyes that were looking at the dog who was barking quite viciously at Loki. Some were surprised, while a few were amused. It took Thor only a moment to notice who was missing - Clint.

"Loki, is that Clint?" Thor asked, fearing the answer but at the same time knowing it was by Loki's grin.

"Yes," Loki replied with a smirk.

This was not at all going to help Loki mend his relationship with the archer.

 


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers
> 
> A/N: Clint looks like a Norfolk Terrier.

 

"Loki, turn him back," Thor commanded immediately as he looked down at the small brown dog. The dog's fluffy fur was the same color as the archer's hair. The little dog looked very... adorable...not that he would ever tell the archer that when the Loki turned Clint back.

"I like him better this way," Loki said with a shake of his head. Thor sighed.

"Loki, I know you don't like what he's accusing you of, but you have to remember your other self brainwashed him. He made him hurt and kill his friends and work with people that were his enemies. Imagine if that happened to you and someone looking exactly like the person who brainwashed you came around again," Thor pleaded trying to get Loki to understand. Loki sighed and looked down at the small dog much less happy than he was a few moments ago.

"I really don't like him," he said with a shake of his head then turned back to Thor "You promise you'll keep him out of my way and out of my hearing range?" he demanded his eyes flashing.

"Yes," Thor said and looked at the rest of Avengers trying to get them to agree to help him with this.

"If he says anything.." Loki threatened.

"He won't," Thor promised. Loki sighed but waved his hand and the archer shifted back to his own form. He looked furious and opened his mouth.

"If you don't want to be Fido again I would suggest keeping your mouth shut," Tony suggested.

Loki smiled; he wasn't sure what a Fido was but he certainly liked the man's humor.

The ones called Natasha and Clint took that moment to leave the room. Clint clearly angry, but obviously he didn't want to become a dog again. Loki wasn't sure why Natasha was leaving. He couldn't think what he had done to cause this reaction, but he realized that he did not really want to know. Instead, he sat down on the red couch in the room simply because it was the closest. Now there was only him, Thor, Tony, and the one with the large shield. He wasn't sure what the one with the large shield was called. Large shield hadn't said much and mostly seemed to just be watching him carefully. The one called Tony clapped his hands drawing everyone's attention.

"Okay, since apparently even though it's my house, S.H.I.E.L.D can decide who can stay here. That doesn't mean that isn't still my house and as such you will obey my rules or I will throw you out the window."

Loki looked up angrily."I did not throw you-"

"My house my rules," Tony said sternly. Still he found him a lot less scary than he found Fury; which again, he thought might because of similarities between him and his father. They both had one eye and they both spoke from the diaphragm when they yelled.

"Rule number one, no killing anyone," Tony said holding up a single finger.

"I'm not a murderer," Loki said icily. "This is the last time I will warn you; the next time I will turn you into some sort of animal as well," he promised.

"Yeah, jury's still out on that one," Tony said.

Loki supposed it was a step up that Tony had conceded at least a slight possibility of him being truthful. That he was still able to vocally disagree with him even after watching him change Clint made him much more interesting.

"Anyways onto rule #2, no more turning people into animals."

Loki rolled his eyes."I only turned him into a creature after he didn't heed my warning numerous times. It's not like turning him into an animal has any long-term side effects. It's the least lethal but most fitting punishment I can come up with, unless you would rather something harsher?" he said with a suggestive tone falling back into bad habits. When he was annoyed, angry, or someone tried to tell him what to do he tended to say something to make them feel uncomfortable because it made him feel better and more in control of the situation.

Stark blinked at him for a moment before shrugged nonchalantly."Sorry, you're not my type," he said with a nonchalant shrug.

Loki grinned because normally in Asgard they would be angry or uncomfortable at his insinuation, but the man in front of him had hardly reacted at all. "Pity," he said with a shark grin trying again, but Stark didn't avert his eyes just kept staring back at him, he really did like the man. "Okay then, what is your next rule?" he said and Stark looked at him knowing full well that he hadn't agreed to his last rule.

"Rule number three," Stark said holding up three fingers after a long moment and Loki's grin grew "Don't mess-"

Loki heard a loud noise and saw that Thor was sitting on another couch in front of a large screen and was watching people in it running. Loki frowned, what was this? Was this some sort of memory screen? A look at the screen showed none of the rooms current occupants. He rose from his position and slowly made his way over to Thor, unconsciously blocking out everything that Stark was saying. What was this? He sat next to Thor on the long red couch and looked at the screen.

"Gods and their reality TV shows," he heard Stark say.

Loki frowned. He heard footsteps heading away from them and he looked up to see Stark leaving.

"What is a reality TV show?" Loki asked.

Stark smirked.

"Only man's greatest accomplishment," he said.

 


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Thor or Avengers
> 
> Thanks so much for reading

  
Thankfully Stark appeared to be joking because while the show had been somewhat entertaining he failed to see how it could be the Midgardian's greatest invention as they were incredibly idiotic. Thor seemed to be fond of the Midgardian invention that documented Midgardian's lives for some odd reason. However, after a little while, Loki became bored. He got up from the couch leaving Thor without telling him, it served him right for being so caught up someone else's life that he became less aware of his surroundings. It was not safe.  
  
   Loki noticed that the light that had been in the sky had faded away and he seemed to have missed the entire process. He hadn't seen a sunrise or sunset in ages and he had missed it. He wouldn't miss it again for the next two weeks he promised himself. He found himself wandering from the only two rooms that he had seen of the tower. Loki strolled into a hallway that led to somewhere new and naturally he was curious to see what else Stark had in his tower.  
  
   “Hello, Mr. Odinson. Mr. Stark requests that you-.” a voice came out of nowhere for a moment startling Loki, making him wary to who was calling to him. There was no one else in the room but him at the moment.  He felt around with his magic for a presence but only found the presence of the ones he already knew were in the tower.  
  
   “Who's there?” he asked feeling uneasy.

  
   “I'm Jarvis.”  
  
   “What are you, Jarvis?” Loki asked suspiciously, not liking that he didn't know where or who this Jarvis was. Could he somehow magically shield himself from being even detected? If that was the case then he was incredibly powerful.  
  
   “I am an artificial intelligence system.” Loki's eyebrows lifted in surprise. It made sense, Stark was smarter than he had originally given him credit for, after all he had made a suit that could fly and fire weapons.   
  
   “Stark requests that you wait here while he comes to you... and to not touch anything,” he added after a short pause. Loki rolled his eyes. He was wasn't Thor who forgot his size sometimes and tended to break things. Then again he had come here because he thought he knew what he was doing when he had done that spell and had been terribly wrong. He heard footsteps coming towards him.  
  
   “Not interested in the TV? Thor loves those reality shows. I'm not sure why but if we let him he would watch them all day.”  
  
   “Why, they're idiotic?”  
  
   “Some more than others, but I agree. Hang on, we need to get Thor,” he said and made his way down the hall that Loki had just come from.

Loki stayed as Stark passed by him.  
  
   “But how will I find out what happens to the real housewives of Atlanta?” Thor's loud voice boomed a few moments later. However, Stark managed to convince his brother to come and met him back in the hallway.  
  
   “Follow me,” Stark said and didn't wait for a response from either of them before moving forward. The Midgardian's house was quite large, but Loki had grown up in a palace. A palace that people easily got lost in if they didn't know it like he and Thor did.  
  
The dark-haired being wondered what Stark wanted to show them, but held his tongue for the moment assuming that Tony would tell them when he was ready. They made their way to a door that had a button by it. Loki found himself fascinated by it since he had never seen such a thing before. He wondered what it was and what it did. Tony hit the button and it lit up. Loki hoped its purpose was more fascinating. A few minutes later and the metal doors slid open soundlessly. Thor and Tony got in so he supposed he should do the same. After Loki entered the doors he ran his eyes around the room that appeared to a metal box.  The only place that wasn't completely metal was a portion of the wall that had many buttons on it each with a number to the side of them. Tony hit the button that was marked 39 and the thing started moving upwards. It was some sort of transportation device he realized, totally fascinated by the device.  
  
   They didn't have things like this in Asgard.  There was the Bitfrost, but that was for interplanetary travel. If an Asgardian  wished for another method of travel, or couldn't get permission, there were ships that did that as well, though it took much longer than the near instant travel of the Bifrost.   
  
 Buildings though, building were much different on Asgard.  Most weren't as tall as the ones he had seen so far on Midgard.   There were other ways to get around on Asgard. Advance Sedir users could teleport, and there was also technology that allowed a person to travel from one place in a building to another. However Asgardians prided themselves on their strength and going up numerous flights of stairs and walking was much more respected and admired than the other methods of getting around.  Magic was often sneered at and the other method was generally only used in emergencies to get the healers to the healing room quicker or through enemy forces. Maybe his time on Midgard would be more interesting than he first thought, even if he was going to have to wait to get an answer from Fury. The door opened and they  exited the metal box and walked down a hallway for a few steps before Tony abruptly turned around, bringing Thor and Loki to halt as well.    
  
   “So I guess maybe this a question I should have asked before we got in the elevator, or before we reached this floor. I don't think it's a good idea for Clint and Loki to be sleeping on the same floor since I think it's possible a midnight stroll could turn into Armageddon,” Loki frowned at Thor not understanding the last word.  
  
   “It means the end of the world,” Thor explained.  Loki sighed, he hated having to rely on Thor or on Thor's knowledge of this world that he knew nothing about.  He was used to having Thor rely on him to know things.   
  
   “Anyways,” Tony continued,“I do have one guest room that's not on that floor, but it's not Thor proofed and if you damage anything in the room that I'm going to-”  
  
   “Toss me out the window,” Loki said dryly.  
  
   “Looks like you've got it,” Tony said with a cocky smile and wrapped his arms around each other as he shook his head.  “I can't believe I have to house you, you tried to kill me.”  
  
   “I did not try to kill you!” Loki argued back, though for some reason he liked the man enough not to do what he had done to the archer.  
  
   “Well, what's it going to be?” Tony asked and Loki considered the two options.  
  
   “What is what going to be?” Thor asked.  
  
   “Loki could either sleep in your room or in the guest room.”  
  
   “I'll sleep in the guest room.” Thor looked a little crushed at his decision so Loki decided to tell a part of the reason for his choice. “Thor, you snore, loudly.”

 **  
**Thor nodded but still looked a little sad.  
  
   “If you wreck my guest room,” Tony warned and Loki nodded.  
  
   “Out the window I will go?”  It didn't matter that it wasn't a very good threat,  they were high enough that he would be able to teleport before he reached the bottom.  He decided to keep that fact to himself. Tony turned around and walked to the Midgardian device, Loki was really going to have to read some book about Midgard so that he wasn't stumbling around blindly.  
  
   “Thor, we're going to be spending the next two weeks together,” Loki said with a smile and Thor nodded but still seemed sad.  
  
   “I'm going to go to bed,” he said as he realized that he was exhausted.  The raven haired being had used a lot of magic today which was draining.  
  
   “I will see you in the morning then,” Thor said and Loki nodded making his way into his temporary room. It wasn't like his room in the palace, but it would do.


	23. Chapter 23

He heard a groan and he looked up from the table where he was reading a book on Midgardian machinery that he had found somewhere in the tower. It was behind the Aesir or the Vanir or even the Jotuns. It was however much more sophisticated he had expected it to be.   
  
   “What are you doing?” Stark asked and Loki raised his eyebrows.  
  
   “I thought it was rather obvious what I was doing,” he said and lifted up the book slightly.  
  
   “No, I mean what are you doing with the chairs.” Loki frowned and noticed some of the chairs were levitating a few inches above the ground. Huh. It was something that sometimes happened when he wasn't paying attention. He'd unintentionally or subconscious used his magic to move things. He set the chairs back down on the ground.  Stark stared at him for a long moment before sitting down on one of the chairs that he hadn't been moving around with his magic.  
  
   “I swear my life is is just getting weirder and weirder, and being around people like you isn't exactly helping.”

Loki laughed because surely Stark’s life as an Avenger was what made his life strange; he would just be making it slightly more strange.       
  
   “Well, just wait until I capture my other self then, you'll have to deal with two of me.” Stark's eyes betrayed nothing so Loki had no clue whether or not Stark believed him to be the man who threw him out the window or not. Yesterday he seemed not to believe him but at the same time he had been giving him looks like he was trying to figure him out as well, looks that suggested that he questioned it.    
  
   “Why are you reading that?” he asked his eyes flickering to the book and back.  
  
   “I got bored. I have no books here and everyone else was asleep.” Plus he wanted to know about Midgardian technology since he hated having to rely on someone else's knowledge rather than his own. Tony sent him a look that if he interpreted correctly asked him why he hadn't been sleeping.   
  
   “I don't have to sleep as long as humans do and I've spent the last couple days in Asgardian prison, so I slept more than I usually would.  
  
   “Sounds like a real terrible place,” Stark said dryly.

Loki heard loud familiar footsteps and smiled.  
  
   “Hi Thor,” he said and Stark turned around to see Thor walk into the room. Loki frowned as he realized that Thor was wearing unfamiliar and probably Midgardian clothing.  
  
   “What are you wearing?” he asked his brother who looked down at his clothes, they were very light compared to their Asgardian Clothing.  
  
   “They are called Jeans and a T-shirt and they are more comfortable than our Asgardian clothing, plus while I wear them others are less likely to notice.” Stark grinned at that.  
  
   “Do they notice him a lot?” Loki asked and watched as his brother blushed in embarrassment.  
  
   “Oh yeah,” Stark said smirking and Loki smiled a teasing smile at his brother who looked away. “Thor has lots of adoring fans,” Stark added and Loki laughed at the look on his brother's face.  
  
   “So tell me more about Thor's adoring fans,” he asked just to see his brother blush deeper.  
  
   “Well, you see-”  
  
   “Loki,” Thor protested.  
  
   “I'm merely trying to figure out how well you are liked by the Midgardians,” he jested. Thor seemed very embarrassed which amused Loki greatly. The Thunderer had always been a favorite of girls in Asgard and he had never been so bashful about it there. The stories must be truly entertaining if  Thor was so embarrassed by just mentioning it.   
  
   “I just forgot, I have to to meet with someone,” Thor said as he exited the room leaving Tony and Loki chuckling... until Tony stopped and looked at him sharply. Loki rolled his eyes, he had been helping him tease Thor just a few moments ago and now was acting again like he was the bad guy. Loki knew that he should probably just get used to it, but he didn't want to. Loki picked back up the book. If Tony was going to just stare at him, he had better things to do than to just stare back.

* * *

  
   Thor wasn't gone for long and when he came back he appeared composed, no longer upset by the earlier teasing. Thor also didn't avoid him like he might have, then again it wasn't like they were going to have a lot of time together. It was two weeks here, a week or maybe two at most in Asgard and then Loki would have to go home.  
  
Loki closed his eyes, at the moment he missed his Thor and looking at this Thor just made him miss his own even more. His Thor, who was surely even with the letter worried about him and here he was gallivanting off with this Thor.  
  
   “Loki?” Thor asked and Loki's eyes snapped open.  He didn't say what he was feeling since it would only serve to make Thor feel even more guilty.  
  
   “You lived on Midgard for awhile, yes?” Loki asked instead.  
  
   “Aye,” Thor said with a nod.  
  
   “Then surely you know the best parts of it?” Loki asked and Thor nodded looking excited at the prospect. He was sure that S.H.I.E.L.D would not like him viewing their world, but he would wear a disguise and it would all be fine.    
  
   “Midgard is a fascinating place brother and I will show you the best parts of it,” Thor said and Loki smiled at Thor's exuberance.

 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers
> 
> A/N: Sorry it's been a bit, RL has been kind of busy lately.

 

He supposed he really should have known. It wasn't like he hadn't known his brother for more than a thousand years. So it really shouldn't have surprised him that the first place he had taken him to was an establishment that served food, something apparently called a hot dog. It looked similar to a sausage, only stranger. Loki couldn't decide whether or not he wanted to take a bite of the thing that Thor had placed in his hand or not. It had something red on top of it; it was similar to blood but was lighter in color and thicker than blood. Thor seemed happy enough to shove the hot dog into his mouth and even the one with the shield seemed to be enjoying his. He supposed the one with the shield had insisted on coming in case Loki really did plan to take over the city again. The Shield man was dressed in what he had learned were normal Midgardian clothes and had left the shield back at the place where he was being forced to stay.

"Loki, it is not poisonous," his brother said and despite himself Loki smiled, being on Midgard suited Thor. The Thunderer seemed more relaxed here, then again on Midgard he was not king and was able to be like everyone else. He wished that this Thor did not have to be king, or at least he had someone to help him out like he had done with his Thor.

His attention returned to the hot dog. Loki hadn't thought it to be poisonous. Thor had eaten the first one well enough and was on his second one. The one with the shield said nothing. He supposed that while the one with the shield may have more manners than some of the others he still didn't trust Loki. Loki sighed and decided that even though it wasn't what he had in mind he could take a bite of it if Thor thought of it so highly. Loki bit into the thing called a hot dog that he had been assured didn't actually have any dog in it. It wasn't as bad as he expected it to be, but he would hardly call it the best food he had ever eaten. Still he smiled at Thor and Thor grinned back. Loki really liked Thor here, he seemed so free, so carefree and innocent. He was going to have to come here again with his Thor and show him the hot dog since it was fairly reasonable to guess that if this Thor liked it then his Thor would like them as well.

"Okay, where to now?" Loki asked although he had no assumptions that Thor was full. His brother was massive and as such had to eat a lot to maintain his bulk. Thor smiled at him and said.

"I can think of a few things."

* * *

"Why is this taking so long?" Loki said others may have accused him of whining, but a low king didn't whine. The man with the shield rolled his eyes perhaps because this was this was not the first time he had asked the question, but it was taking quite the long time. He had never taken so long going anywhere before.

"If I had known that this was going to be taking so long I would have brought a book," Loki grumbled. When Thor suggested using the subway Loki had thought it would be technology as advanced as Starks, but it wasn't nearly as sophisticated as that. He had been interested the first couple of minutes as he figured out how the machine worked, but after that he had become bored.

"Tell me why are we taking this again? I could teleport us there," Loki offered, anything to get them off the subway.

"I could fly us there but-" Loki shook his head nixing that idea before Thor could complete it. He didn't like flying with Thor; he had done so a few times in his youth but he preferred riding horses rather than fly with him. .

"You know how I feel about teleporting as well," Thor replied.

"I'm almost willing to try it if it will get him to stop whining," the one with the absent shield said.

"I do not whine," Loki said regally.

"You don't understand how teleporting works," Thor said to the Midgardian.

"How does it work?" the man asked. Thor looked at him to explain, even though he knew how it worked even if he couldn't do it.

"Teleportation requires deatomziation and then rebuilding from the cellular level at your chosen destination," the man looked pale to which Loki shrugged. He wasn't sure why everyone seemed so afraid of teleportation, it was instant and didn't make you nauseous like flying with Thor did.

"I think we should stick with the subway," the shieldless shield man said. Loki rolled his eyes.

"Fine." Long time in a boring train that smelled of body odor and other things he didn't want to identify it was.

* * *

"Where are we going?" Loki asked after they finally got off the subway. He kept up easily with his brother, the two of them falling into the same pattern they always had when they walked together. Even if it meant that Thor had to slow himself down a little. He preferred walking a lot more compared to the claustrophobic trains.

"You will see," Thor said with his best imitation of Loki's mischievous smile. Loki smiled in response, Thor could never pull it off, his face was too honest and he had trouble hiding his emotions. Though he sadly seemed a lot better than his own brother or at least seemed that way when Loki had shown up. Then again, this Thor had to deal with a lot more treachery and deceit from him than his own Thor had. Loki just followed his brother. He assumed his brother knew where he was going since he had lived here for over a year. Loki couldn't imagine living on earth so long even if he knew why his brother had done so, saving the innocents of New York and other areas. Meanwhile, Loki had been a danger to them he thought darkly.

His thoughts were thankfully interrupted when he noticed there were in more people surrounding them now and there were several heading towards a particular building.

"What is that building they're all swarming to?" Loki asked looking at the remarkably tall building.

"It's the Empire State building;, it's the tallest building in New York," Thor said but didn't stop. "However, it requires that you wait in line for hours and that's not really something I enjoy. I have flown to the observation deck after hours in the past though,"

"We should go tonight then," Loki suggested even though he intended to teleport. Thor nodded his approval of the idea. Loki grinned it would be the like the adventures they used to have when they were kids. It had been so long since they had any of those. It was meetings and decisions. He was good at many of those things; however, it didn't mean that they didn't bore him. Ruling wasn't as exciting as he had thought. He was glad that he wasn't the only ruler or else he probably would have died from boredom already.

They walked in silence for a time stopping at what were apparently called traffic lights, and waited for their turn to cross. Loki absently wondered how much longer it was until they got to their location, physically it didn't really matter since he wasn't even slightly tired yet. It was nice to walk for so long, usually Loki was cooped up working on this proposal or that plan, or really anything that kept him tied to a desk. He really should have gone on more adventures with Thor in his childhood. Maybe he would have if he would have known how much time he would be spending with books that weren't nearly as entertaining as the books he had read in childhood.

Loki's attention wandered to the amount of people there appeared to be just walking around on the streets, he had to be careful to avoid hitting people. This was truly a very crowded city and noisy with all the metal things contributing their own personal sound to the cacophony.

"Thor, what are those things called?" he said pointing to the metal objects. He saw the humans in them and knew that they controlled them so they were probably some sort of machinery, he just wanted a name to go with them.

"They are called cars," Thor said and he was smiling again, clearly enjoying being the person Loki asked when normally it was the other way around. Loki nodded. He looked behind him to see the shield-less shield man walking a few steps behind them. He turned to his brother again intending to ask him what the man's name, but decided to actually ask the man when they got to wherever their location was. A few more streets and then Thor stopped and Loki stopped as well.

"Oh, here's where we're going," the as of yet unnamed man said. Loki looked at the sign above the place that read Chelsea Market. The three of them headed inside. Loki looked around.

"What is this?" Loki said puzzled by the variety of food he saw and the various smells in the air. In Asgard, there was usually only whatever was hunted down and some type of bread, but there were so many different smells in the air. It was also a little quieter. There were still people talking loudly but the noises of the traffic outside had dimmed a little.

"You like food too, but I know we have different tastes so I brought you somewhere where we can both get what we want," Thor said with a grin then looked slightly puzzled. "I wonder what food I think you will like best."

"I'll think I'd decide that," Loki said at the moment unwilling to trust Thor's taste buds as opposed to his own.

"Alright," Thor said with a nod. "But I can tell you things you might like," he said by way of compromise.

"Agreed," Loki agreed with a nod.

Ten minutes later

"This is very good," Loki said after finishing chewing and pointing down to the thing called a brownie that was in front of him. Thor gave him a look that said 'I told you so' and Loki hid a smile.

"You really should eat something besides sweets, though," Thor admonished. Loki shrugged, he had always had a sweet tooth and he would rather have desserts more than anything else at the moment.

"You know that it is not good to just eat sweets," he said sounding like their mother.

"God," Loki said pointing to himself and Thor smiled seemly despite himself and Loki allowed himself to smile as well. There were few people that saw the less guarded side of him, well really only Thor. The rest of the kingdom saw his solemn kingly side. They probably preferred the stiff image he projected now rather than his image of the trickster. He was sure he was still not well liked by the most of the population of Asgard, not like Thor was. A little of the old resentment starting bubbling up again before he reminded himself of how things were now with him and Thor and the resentment quickly dissipated.

Instead, he grinned and made his way past other shops to another one of the ones that seemed to similar treats. But as he got closer, he realized they were different. After some perusing, he settled on something called a cinnamon roll. He wasn't sure what that was since they did not have cinnamon on Asgard. However the moment he bit into it he was sure that he was going to take it from here and plant it on Asgard and have them make them all the time, or maybe he would make them himself. It didn't matter, as long as someone made the glorious creations and made them as often as possible. They were so gooey inside and the white stuff on top was practically heaven.

"So you like it?" Thor asked his face slightly teasing and Loki nodded enthusiastically.

"Would you like to sample some more Earth food?" Loki nodded eagerly, their food was fabulous and so new, it was splendid.

* * *

He was glancing around at the Midgardians after having stuffed himself with various earth delicacies. He caught a familiar flash of blond hair and saw Thor coming to him from the crowd. He was finishing something that had a lot of red sauce and as the smell hit him he found the smell to be desirable. Unfortunately, he had no more room and he was going to have to abstain. He and Thor had separated for a short time while they eat various foods. Unfortunately, his shadow hadn't gone with him. He thought to spare a glance at the man who hadn't left his side, nor seemed to want to talk to him, before going back to ignoring the man's presence.

His brother finished the last of whatever it was that he was eating before he grabbed his shoulder and started pulling him.

"What are you doing?" he asked stopping short and jolted slightly as he felt someone brush past him.

"You need some actually mortal clothes," Thor said not turning around and continued trying to pull him.

"I like my own clothes, besides I'm projecting the illusion of mortal clothes already. "

"But you are on earth, perhaps you should try their style of clothing," Thor said finally turning around and letting go of his arm.

"Stark has given me some money because of my heroic activities and I would appreciate it if you would let me spend some of it buying you some Midgardian clothes," Thor pleaded with an earnest look in his eyes. Loki sighed, he didn't see the point but if would make his brother happy then he would acquiesce

"Alight, fine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I've never actually been to Chelsea Market all information was gotten from the internet so it could be wrong.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers.

Another long subway ride only to end up here.

He sat in a plastic chair that only stayed down because of his weight. It wasn't a terribly comfortable chair. He had been sitting there for twenty minutes and analyzing everything. He was in a place full of people which; a situation that had never really made him feel at ease even if the people weren't looking at him. They were all watching what was happening on the floor which Loki was watching as well. Although, occasionally he looked up at the crowd when they starting chanting things. He was sitting between the shieldless shield man and Thor. Loki knew he should ask the man's name; it was a little annoying not knowing it, but he hadn't gotten around to it, he had been too distracted by the market and the treats. Then he had been distracted by all the clothes that his brother had practically thrown at him to try on. Both of the other men's attentions were on the floor as well.

"I don't see the point of this game," Loki said finally and both sets of eyes shot to him. Thor looked so strange in Midgardian clothes, he supposed that he probably looked strange to Thor as well. He was in disguise too and that meant he had to look like he was wearing normal Midgardian clothes even if his were just an illusion. Thor looked down at the floor and then to him.

"Well you see the two teams want to get the most amount of points and they each have their own basket so they-" Loki interrupted Thor because if he let him continue he would probably explain the whole thing.

"I didn't say I didn't get the goal of this game, or the rules, I figured most of them out by now, but I don't get the point. They run back and forth, they shoot the ball and they get points. Even sparring has more purpose than this. At least with sparing you are increasing your skills but why do people find this entertaining? Why do they come here to watch people run around with a ball? Are they paid to do so?" Loki asked.

"No, we paid to come here." the shieldless shield man said and Loki looked incredulously at him.

"You paid to watch other participate in exercise, albeit pointless exercise, while you watch them?" Loki looked at his brother's face trying to understand it. His brother shrugged.

"Tis entertaining," Loki decided to drop it even though he didn't understand the point of it. If his brother enjoyed it he would stop pointing out it's flaws even if he couldn't understand why Thor found it entertaining.

"Brother will you come with me to get more sustenance?" Thor asked after a few minutes. Loki nodded because he didn't care much for the game. He did worry that Thor intended to get a considerable amount of food if he wanted Loki to go with him. The two of them stood up and made their way up the stairs into the circular area above it just as a cheer went through the crowd. Loki didn't bother to look back to see what happened. The circular area was a little quieter than the surrounding area and Loki followed Thor around until they found themselves in a line for food. He had to admit it was something he was unfamiliar with and had been so all day. Especially since the food that tended to taste the best generally had the longest line. Still, he found the food to be worth it most of the time, he hoped that this was not an exception.

* * *

"Hungry?" Tony asked pointing to the remaining pizza. He had over- ordered due to the fact he had forgotten that Steve had gone with the others. Steve shook his head and touched his stomach leading Tony to believe he had eaten too much already. Tony shrugged, he was sure someone would eat the cold pizza sometime, especially with Thor in the house. Thor could eat...a lot. He made a mental note to have someone buy a large quantity of pop tarts since Thor seemed to go through them very quickly.

"So how did it go?" Tony asked and Steve slumped a little in his seat.

"That bad huh." Tony asked, but Steve shook his head.

"It's not that, it's just their fast, faster than me and It's been awhile since I've had trouble keeping up with anyone," Steve said sounding tired. Tony nodded, they were aliens. Sometimes it was hard to remember that, other times it was easy like when Thor called lightning or when Loki had well done just about everything that he had done on earth.

"And Loki?" he asked it was the question he had been wondering about all day and all yesterday, pretty much since he had come waltzing back into their lives.

"He stayed in disguise and did what his brother told him to. Honestly, sometimes I forgot who he was because of the disguise," Steve admitted. Tony leaned over so that he was closer to him and whispered.

"What do you think about this whole Loki thing?" Tony asked. He knew Clint's and probably Natasha's view on it and it was clear that Thor thought his brother was telling the truth, but he wanted to know Steve's. He'd like to know Bruce's as well, but Bruce was gone on assignment, 'lucky him' Tony thought briefly before focusing back on Steve who was looking at the counter and seeming to think about his question.

"I don't know. He just doesn't seem like that the person who came here and tried to make himself the ruler of earth," Steve said.

"He's the god of lies," Tony reminded him, even if he wasn't sure either. Loki did seem very different from the one that they had met before. "He's also incredibly good at manipulating people," he added which was the thing that worried him the most.

"I know that, but he just seemed different. He doesn't seem like he's hiding anything whereas everything about Loki before screamed I'm planning something," Steve said. Tony had to agree there was such a difference in demeanor, it was really very strange. Not to mention that this Loki's eyes didn't seem to have the mad glint in his eyes and the whole 'I know something you don't know' look.

"Anyways, I'm going to bed. They wore me out," Steve said heading to the elevator. Tony watched him go still not sure exactly what to think about Loki.

* * *

"Where are you guys going?" Tony asked a little warily, although if Thor was going with Loki they couldn't be getting into too much trouble.

"We are going to the Empire State building," Thor said.

Tony opened his mouth to ask a question but decided against it and just took a drink of his scotch. A good scotch made living with a bunch of super-powered beings and assasians much easier to deal with.

"Would you like to come?" Thor asked.

Tony shook his head. "Nah. Just don't get caught, Fury will explode." possibly quite literally. When Fury got angry he always seemed to be very close to just spontaneously combusting on the spot. Loki gestured a hand and Tony dodged it expecting an attack only to realize that Loki hadn't been pointing at him but at the wall behind him. A gray mist covered the wall and Tony found himself fascinated despite himself. Loki grabbed Thor's shoulder and waited until the Empire State building's observatory deck come into view. Loki nodded and then let go of Thor's shoulder and the mist left.

"I'll see you there brother," Loki said and popped out of existence leaving only a flash of green light in his wake.

"More scotch," Tony muttered to himself as he poured himself another drink and watched Thor go to the elevator. He poured himself a little bit more. "Definitely more scotch."

* * *

Loki took in a deep breath as he looked at the city full of lights in the darkness. Thor would be there soon but for the moment he had the entire thing to himself. The air up here was a little fresher and cleaner that the air at the bottom where he had been walking all day. His lungs had been tickling all day probably fixing the slight damage caused by the polluted air.

Thor landed with a light thud by him. Loki briefly smiled at him but his eyes were focused on the cityscape. It was so different from home. The architecture of buildings was unlike anything on Asgard. Their technology was different. A good part of it was unclean and damaging unlike Asgards. Still, what he had seen so far of it inclined him to like it some parts more than others, but generally the people of Midgard seemed like friendly hardworking loving people. He wondered why his counterpart had wanted to rule and stamp out their freedom, which was surely a part of what made them so fascinating and unique. It was nice up, here the traffic seemed less loud. It was peaceful.

"Do you like it brother?" Thor asked and Loki turned to him.

"Yes Thor. Thank you for bringing me." Thor smiled and he looked back at the city that he had chosen to protect during his stay there.

 


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers

Loki was sitting down eating what the Midgardians called cocoa puffs. They certainly had an interesting flavor and it wasn't something that he had ever tried before. While it wasn't bad it certainly wasn't his favorite Midgardian food, but it also certainly wasn't awful. Another pot banged from the kitchen where Thor was attempting to make something, even though Thor didn't cook and Stark had offered to buy take out but had left when they had declined. He just hoped that Thor would not set something on fire with his desire to cook. He heard footsteps from across the room and looked up to see a man looking at him. Well, that wasn't exactly true the man was glaring at him. He had never seen the man before but that didn't mean that the man didn't know him. The man had what he thought were called glasses over his eyes; a Midgardian way of correcting poor vision. He was also wearing a purple dress shirt and black pants.

"You," the man said his eyes looked as if he was trying to set him on fire. He found himself glad that the man could not just kill him or burn him simply with a glare. Loki pushed aside his half-eaten bowl of cocoa puffs no longer really feeling up to eating them anymore.

"So, I assume you know me?" Loki said dryly. He was really tired of having this conversation over and over again.

"You're damn right I do," the man said not losing his glare.

"Ah, I see," Loki said with a bitter smile only to frown as he noticed that the man's eyes were turning green. He was surely a Midgardian? Loki did a quick magical scan and found that it was not a magical transformation but something else, although he wasn't sure what.

"Thor," he said loudly both a little wary but at the same time fascinated, however, he managed to keep his voice even.

"Yes, brother?" Thor called from the kitchen.

"There's a visitor here and I'm wondering if you might know him," he said like it was everyday during breakfast that a man walked in and his eyes started changing color. His face was starting to get a green tinge to it as well.

Thor walked back from the kitchen looking alarmed but only for a second before Thor relaxed. The raven-haired being gathered that Thor knew the man who was still turning green. Then Thor's eyes flickered over to Loki and The Thunderer's eyes narrowed again in what seemed like alarm, like he was worried about him. What was the man doing there? Why was he turning green? Loki had never seen such a thing before and certainly not with someone who was supposed to be human. Loki was slightly unsettled because Thor looked so alarmed which wasn't like him. The man must be quite formidable if it made his brother so wary.

"Thor?" Loki asked hoping to get some sort of information, but Thor's wary eyes refused to look away from the man who getting even greener.

"Banner, I know you are angry with my brother, but you don't understand." That was when Loki noticed that not only was the man growing greener he was also growing larger much larger.

"Banner, calm down" his brother pleaded

"What is he doing here?"

"Friend, Banner, please calm down."

"Loki is here. Why is he here?"

Loki was quite at a loss since he wasn't really sure what was going on. All he could do was to wait until he could understand and then maybe do something.

"Loki is not the Loki that you remember."

Loki briefly entertained the idea of putting a spell on his skin that would proclaim that to everyone he met, but he was sure it probably wouldn't really help him to get anyone to believe him.

"Hulk smash puny god," the green being said and put his massive fist into the palm of his other massive palm.

"Puny god?" He bristled at that comment. He knew he wasn't as bulky as Thor, but he wasn't puny. Besides, what he lacked in physical strength he made up for in magical strength

"Loki meet the Hulk," Thor introduced him warily. The Hulk? He had been the one that had eventually stopped the other Loki's reign of terror. He supposed he was grateful for that because at least it had stopped Loki from taking any more innocent lives. Still, The Hulk looked like he wanted a repeat performance.

"How does one usually stop him?" Loki asked in the likely event that he would need to know that, Thor shrugged.

"Fantastic," Loki said under his breath. How was he going to avoid being seriously hurt for something that he hadn't even done? Especially since the man/whatever he was, hadn't seemed to have heard Thor at all.

"What causes him to shift form?" Loki asked instead.

"His anger and I believe some sort of radiation."

Loki nodded as Banner seemed to have finished shifting.

"Thor," he said loudly and warily not liking the way the beast was looking at him and also knowing that unlike most mortals the beast could actually cause him harm if he were to try . Loki grabbed Thor's broad shoulders for a moment considering shielding the two of them from the beasts attack. Instead, he surrounded the green beast in a slightly darker green magical shield which only seemed to enrage the beast further. Loki looked at the beast a little wary, but at the same time fascinated since it wasn't exactly something that he had ever come across before.

"You say he transforms because he is angry?" Loki asked and Thor nodded. How could radiation do something like that? How could emotion trigger a change like that even if radiation had a part in it? It had to be something more than the emotion. Something in the emotion that triggered a physical change or altered brain chemistry enough to trigger turning into what he currently was.

The Hulk seemed comparatively simple even to normal Midgardians, and seemed to speak in short, not terribly intelligent ways. Maybe he could confuse it? It might make the beast angrier but even so maybe he should confuse it. Loki closed his eyes and concentrated. He opened them and watched the blue slowly take over his form. He rarely was in his blue form, only with his brothers, but it didn't feel as strange as it used to. He looked at the Hulk who seemed to be looking at him in confusion. Yes, good, he was confusing it.

"Look, Hulk, I am not the person from before who did all those things," he tried to explain yet again. The Hulk stared at him for a moment, then tried to hit them only to be stopped by the magical force field.

"Hulk, Loki is right. He is not the one who did those terrible things," Thor said earnestly. That was when Loki noticed a burning smell in the room likely coming from whatever it was that Thor had been trying to cook. Then an annoying beeping sound started.

"What the hell is going on here?" All three sets of eyes focused on Tony who had just come back into the room. His nostrils were flaring at the smell of burnt food than he took in the standoff that the three of them were currently taking part in.

"The beast is intent on harming me, I decided not to let him," Loki said smoothly, as if magical shields weren't incredibly draining and as if he didn't doubt his ability to keep the magical shield up for more than ten minutes, especially around a beast as strong as the Hulk seemed to be. He had to find some way to change the man back before the shield failed or the beast was probably going to hurt him.

"Look Hulk," Tony said to the Hulk who back at the man. "I'm not a fan of him crashing at my pad either, but if you attack him here you're going to ruin my place again," Hulk merely looked at the Jotun again, still angry. That was when Tony seemed to realize that he was in a different form.

"Wait, Loki are you a smurf?" he asked laughing. Loki frowned, he wasn't sure what a smurf was. He looked at Thor who shrugged. "That's hilarious," he said laughing harder.

"What makes him this way?" Loki asked since their time was running out. Tony sobered up looking at the Hulk.

"Anger and if his pulse goes beyond a certain range," Loki nodded. Pulse, a physical change that triggered an even bigger physical change. If that was what triggered the change than all he had to do was decrease his heart rate. Of course, that would mean lowering the shield and subjecting himself to probably being tossed around a little.

"I'm going to let him out," Loki said. Thor and Tony both looked at him with faces that implied that they thought he was mad.

"If he wrecks my place because of you I don't care what Fury says I'm kicking you out," Tony threatened jabbing a finger in his direction as he spoke. Loki nodded although not really in response to Tony's statement. He let go of the shield and the Hulk lumbered forward. Loki closed his eyes and reached out with his magic into The Hulk's body. This wasn't something he had ever really attempted before. Loki hoped that it worked or he was probably going to end up flat and broken. At least he would probably heal quickly. His magic intuitively sought out the beasts weaknesses. Most of the beast strengths seemed to lie in his size, strength, and skin which kept dangerous things from going into the beast's body. He could atomize man turned beast, but that would be essentially killing him. Loki was not fond of death if he could avoid it. There had to be another way to stop him. He focused his magic on forcing the rate of the beast's heart to slow down a little. The raven-haired being was glad that this morning he had skimmed over a book on Biology. He felt himself being grabbed and Loki forced the heart rate to slow down a little bit more. He felt a large hand closed around him and starting to squeeze him and focused hard on slowing down the heart rate further.

The hand left him and Loki opened his eyes hoping that he had accomplished what he had set out to do. The ex-god of mischief hoped that he hadn't unintentionally harmed the beast even though it had meant to harm him. He watched as the beast shrunk slowly and took in a deep breath of relief. Good, he wasn't going to be flattened; that would have been unwanted and painful. The man version of the Hulk looked bashful and grabbed tightly to the tatters of his pants. The other three occupants of the room were staring at him with a mixture of fascination and suspicion.

"You forced me to change back," the now smaller man spoke astonished. Loki shrugged, it was the only thing that he could think of to avoid being pummeled that hadn't involved killing the man.

"How did you do that?" the no longer green man asked at the moment more fascinated and relieved than suspicious.

"Magic, I forced your heart rate down," he explained. A little more suspicion and uneasiness made it's way back into his face.

"You forced my heart rate down? He can do that?" This was directed at Thor who shrugged.

"As I said, this is not the Loki that you are familiar with. This Loki is far more advanced his magic that my brother was and as such I'm not familiar about the extent of his abilities," Loki found himself grinning at Thor's compliment.

"What's that smell?" the man said sniffing the air that Loki now remembered was full of the scent of burning food. Thor's eyes widened and he ran towards the kitchen.

"My pancakes!"

  
  



	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers.

Steve had made his way into the dining room not long ago, only to find Thor lamenting over what had apparently been pancakes. Personally, he thought, it looked more like charcoal. Loki was sitting on one of the chairs in the dining room, eyes closed and glowing a slight green color which was slightly alarming. Steve also saw bits of fabric on the floor, which was strange except he was faintly familiar with what that meant.

"So, Bruce got home?" he asked going back into the kitchen preferring to be there rather with a glowing Loki.

"Yes," Thor said looking sorrowfully at the blackness of the pancakes for a moment longer before scraping them into the trash. "Apparently he was out of contact and S.H.I.E.L.D did not tell him about Loki's presence here."

"There is no sign of the Hulk except the scraps of fabric," Steve pointed out wondering why that was. Thor poured more batter into the frying pan as he answered.

"Loki was able to force him to change back."

Steve's eyes widened. "What?! Loki forced him to turn back!" Steve shouted alarmed.

"It is fortunate that he is on our side, is it not?" Thor said as he flipped the pancakes.

Steve wasn't sure about that; in fact, he wasn't sure about anything that had to do with Loki. Although he wasn't no longer completely determined that Loki was lying like he had been when he had originally shown up. In fact, the whole Loki situation was making him kind of tired and exhausted. Steve didn't respond, he just watched Thor make pancakes for a few minutes until he had a small stack of them. Thor made his way to the table and stood next to his brother who was still glowing slightly green. Thor noticed this and frowned.

"Brother, you are glowing," Thor said confused and alarmed. Loki nodded but didn't offer up an explanation of why.

"Why are you glowing?" Thor asked and Steve found himself interested in the answer as well.

"It helps me gather my magic again after using it all the magic I used with the green man," Loki said without opening his eyes. Thor nodded and sat next to his brother and Steve went back into the kitchen to make himself some breakfast. He wanted bacon and eggs, but he didn't feel like making breakfast for the whole group. Whenever he made food for himself, others would help themselves to his food. Instead, he grabbed a bowl and a spoon and the box of Raisin Bran. He poured some milk into his cereal and brought his food back into the dining room. Loki was thankfully no longer glowing and instead appeared to be in quiet conversation with his brother. They both looked up when he came in and then Loki went back to eating the last bits of what appeared to be cocoa puffs. Thor grinned at him, looking excited why did that expression make him feel nervous?

"Steve, today we are going around the world and unless you wish to fly with me or teleport with Loki you might wish to stay here."

Steve waved them away. He wasn't sure he believed Loki, but he was too tired from yesterday to try to do it all over again. He also wasn't fond of the thought of being atomized and trusting Loki to put him back together again, or in Flying with Thor, in fact, he was content to just relax after yesterday. Thor nodded and started towards the door when Loki cleared his throat, not moving from his spot. The Thunderer paused and Loki looked at Thor expectantly, but Thor seemed to not understand what Loki wanted and neither did Steve. Loki rolled his eyes and pointed at the wall which suddenly had a gray mist over it. Thor nodded as he made his way back to his brother.

"Are you sure you don't wish to fly with me brother?" Thor said it in a teasing tone and the raven-haired being shook his head.

Steve's attention remained focused on the gray mist on the wall. What was it? He had never seen anything like it before. Was it a weapon? Was it dangerous? Thor didn't seem to be concerned about it being in the middle of the kitchen, but then again Thor trusted his brother. Steve wasn't quite to that point.

"What is that?" Steve asked and the two brothers looked from him to the wall and back to Steve nearly simultaneously.

"It's a memory screen," Loki answered after a moment, "I need a visual of where I'm going or I might end up in the wrong place,"

"We wouldn't want that to happen," Steve turned to find Clint in the doorway leaning against the doorway but not in a way that anyone would ever confuse for comfortable. The Archer was looking between Loki and the gray mist suspiciously and honestly Steve felt about the same as Clint looked. The Mist was big, showy and it made him uncomfortable. The Trickster this time thankfully decided not to turn Clint into an animal. The only reaction from him was a slight pursing of his lips. Loki raised his hand up like he was asking for permission and Thor nodded. Loki put his hand down on Thor's forehead gently and suddenly there were pictures on the wall, flashing between different pictures but too fast to really distinguish what the images were.

"Thor, you have to pick one," Loki said annoyed and Thor grinned sheepishly before the image settled.

"See you there," Loki said with a mischievous smile. Loki disappeared on the spot and Thor nodded made his way out of the kitchen and toward the elevator. In a few moments, the elevator doors closed and Thor was out of sight.

"He better not get us killed," Clint said before heading into the kitchen. Steve hoped the same.

* * *

Bruce had an eventful day. A twelve-hour plane ride back to the tower only to find Loki just sitting there. He lost his cool and let the Hulk out. Surprisingly, no damage happened. That happened never. The Hulk may have gotten on the page of mostly only hurting villains now, but it had never just not hurt anyone or damage anything. Bruce went up to his room to change back into some non-shredded clothes and then Tony caught him up on what was happening with Loki.

Apparently, Loki was claiming to be from another universe where he had never come to earth to hurt them. Although, Tony claimed to not believe a single word that came out of Loki's mouth Bruce could tell that he had a few doubts. The Loki he had seen was much more powerful that the Loki who had come before. If he was the same person, then it would have been much harder to win the first time around. There was no reason to think that Loki wouldn't have used his full power to gain what he wanted. He didn't even need to talk to Clint to know his opinion, though.

* * *

Tony ordered food for the five of them and Bruce was digging into it with relish. Changing into The Hulk always left him feeling starved. The elevator opened and Thor and Loki appeared, Thor laughing loud and boisterously. Bruce found himself smiling, if only for Thor's sake. Thor hadn't been this happy in a long time. The Thunderer occasionally had a happy moment, but it was always tempered by the sadness of his father's failing health, his mother's death and his brother's death, then finding out that Loki had faked his own. He really hoped for Thor's sake that this wasn't a trick because Bruce knew that if it was, Thor would be completely devastated. Loki wasn't laughing as loudly but softly chuckling, it sort of transformed his face. Bruce saw Clint stiffen out of the corner of his eye and Natasha straightening up.

"We saw all the seven wonders of the world," Thor said with a wide grin on his face that his brother echoed. Bruce found himself briefly wishing that he could fly, then it wouldn't have taken 12 hours for him to get back. Another bonus would be that he probably wouldn't have to deal with jet lag. Boy, was he tired, both from jet lag and from turning into The Hulk. Thor grabbed a slice from the box and shoved a good portion of it into his mouth.

"You just ate," Loki reminded him reproachfully.

"But Loki, there is always room for pizza," Thor said joyfully after he swallowed his first piece. Loki tried to hid a smile but didn't do it very successfully.

"You should try some," Thor said gesturing to the pizza. Loki looked at the Pizza for his eyes focused for a moment on Natasha and Clint and he turned towards the elevator.

"Actually brother, I'm tired from today adventures. I think I'm just going to go up to my room," Thor looked sad about this.

Loki sighed and amended. "But I think we should get dessert first.,"

Thor grinned."I know just the place," the blonde said and two of them walked together to the elevator.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers. 
> 
> This was supposed to go up much sooner but I have a weird neck/head problem that slowed it down a bit.

Loki found himself wondering around in the dead of night as was his habit even in Asgard. He had never required as much sleep as everyone else to function so he had taken to night walks or reading in the middle of the night. This night found the Trickster down a few levels from his sleeping quarters investigating rooms.

The raven-haired being had learned which floor his brother slept on and decided to avoid searching there knowing that if he happened to find the room that The Archer slept in then things would not go well. Part of him, The Trickster part, wanted to do it anyway and cause chaos, but in the end Loki had decided against it. Instead, he just pulled open the door to an unknown room, checked the inside briefly for anything that looked entertaining and then closed the door. He continued this process over 50 times usually finding nothing but boring items. Loki finally came to a door that had a sophisticated system to keep intruders out, rather than a simple lock like most of the rest of the building. The simple locks had taken barely a thought to unlock and then relock afterward, although he wasn't sure why he had relocked them. It was not as though he meant to hide his actions and he knew that if anyone wanted to know, all they would have to do was ask the AI intelligence system in the house. He supposed though, if there was a reason to lock them up in the first place then there was a reason to keep them locked.

Still, this lock was different from the others and it intrigued him. Not that it could keep him out, but still he was fascinated since the lock was quite a bit more sophisticated than the other ones. Maybe a locked door should tell him to stay out, but ever since he was a child he had always seen a locked door as a challenge. Even before he was able to use his magic, he had used objects he had found around the palace to try to get into places that others tried to keep him out of.

Another bad habit of his he supposed. But it was as if the door was begging him to break in and he couldn't say no. Loki could probably easily open it with magic, but he liked to work up slowly to magic. For some reason doing it immediately with magic felt as if he were cheating. It didn't really make sense because the really complicated doors always required magic. Still as Loki looked at the lock, it appeared to his trained eye like it would require magic. Never the less Loki summoned his tools to him and silently worked on the door for a few minutes before his curiosity got the best of him and he opened the door with a flash of green and a flick of his hand.

The door swung open quietly, the only sound being a faint electronic hiss. Huh, Tony was in here and apparently this was where he liked to keep his toys. Tony also didn't particularly appear fond of sharing of them, especially with him.

"What are you doing? You're not supposed to be in here," Stark said annoyed and more than a little bit angry.

"Was that one of the rules that I wasn't paying attention to?" Loki asked, but his attention was on the objects in the lab he made his way into.

"Apparently," Stark replied now with the annoyance slightly heavier than the anger. Loki's eyes took in all the gadgets and gizmo's. Stark certainly was extremely bright, for being human. He looked at the object that Stark was working on at the moment with a curious look in his eyes.

"Whatever it is your thinking about, stop it," Tony said.

"Yes, because I must always be thinking evil dark thoughts about taking over your planet," Loki said sarcastically rolling his eyes.

"So why are you in here then?"

"I wanted to get past your lock," Loki answered honestly and he saw Tony blink.

"How did you get past my lock?" Tony asked a tinge of curiosity seeping into his voice.

"Magic," Loki said simply and looked at one of the suits. These suits could fly, he could only fly if he turned himself into a bird. Most of the time he just teleported to get around, it was faster anyways.

"Stop looking at my suits," Tony asked with a hint of a growl.

"As if I'm jealous of your suits," Loki replied dryly. He could atomize it right now, it was a fascinating spell atomizing things, and one that he had learned when he had learned to teleport himself. Of course, the atomizing part was easier than the part when he put himself back together. It certainly made cleaning up things easier and it was how they dealt with waste on Asgard. However, even though he was not jealous he did want to get his hand on all the gadgets to see how they worked, but he was sure that Stark would have a problem with that.

"Are you just going to stand there looking at me," Loki shrugged and sat down next to Stark, the brunette rolled his eyes.

"That's not what I meant," Stark said annoyed, but Loki just picked up the first thing his hand came into contact with.

"Put that down." Loki rolled his eyes again but put it down.

"I'm not the villain that you think I am," Loki said not really expecting the man to believe it but at the same time irritated having to keep repeating the same thing and not be believed. It reminded him of the times that he would insist he hadn't done something and no one would believe him because of his tendency to lie. It was not helping him in his pursuit to stay honest, or at least more honest.

"Yeah I'll believe that never," Stark said sarcastically. Loki bit back the retort that was on his tongue of how if he was the evil person they all believed him to be that he would just atomize all of the Midgardian's suits or probably worse. Loki's counterpart, from what he knew of him, would probably atomize the entire team. He was glad that his counterpart hadn't quite gotten that far in his magic yet.

Loki wished to stay and mess with Stark things and irritate the brunette some more. However, he knew that the brunette barely tolerated his presence in his home and staying any longer or taunting him anymore could break his limited patience for his presence. So he rose and walked toward the door.

"I'll take my leave then," he was halfway to the door before he paused,"I know you won't believe me, but in all honesty I'm not the Loki who you know," he said then walked out the door using his magic to close the door.

* * *

He wandered aimlessly for awhile, no longer very interested in finding out what was behind the remaining doors. He wandered around with little purpose other to kill time until his brother woke up. Eventually he found himself back in the kitchen. Like all the other rooms, there were a few seconds before the lights turned on; the AI probably had a hard time with his lower than normal body temperature. He sighed as he looked around at the gleaming surfaces of the kitchen. He missed home. He missed his Thor. He missed it dreadfully especially since Stark had just reminded him who he was here.

However, there was nothing to be done about it. He had promised Thor his help and two weeks here on this planet. Besides, he reminded himself that it wasn't all bad. This planet had many spectacular things to offer in the daylight. It wasn't yet day, though the sun was peeking out from the horizon, splashing the sky in pinks. Loki found his mood lightening as he took in the pinks. It was beautiful. He had managed to miss it three nights and mornings in a row so he enjoyed the blossoming colors for a few minutes. It looked a little different on Midgard than it had on Asgard, but it was still beautiful. After the red and oranges starting to spread he found his attention drawn elsewhere.

The raven-haired being found himself opening doors again, only this time he was searching to see what this Midgardian kitchen held. After several minutes, he was able to ascertain what was at his disposal. He began to gather the items together on the counter. When all the items, or at least the closest to what he needed were located, he nodded.

He was going to cook. He wasn't sure what it was about cooking that soothed him, although most of the soothing had been done by the sunrise, this would help as well. Loki wasn't sure what it was, but cooking calmed him down. The raven-haired Jotun wasn't often able to use that outlet since princes and Kings weren't really supposed to cook, but he was able to bribe one of the cooks once and awhile to let him do so. Here, there appeared to be no one to stop him, then again it was probably still a little early.

He took out several of the ingredients he had selected and started mixing them together. Loki had a great memory. He could remember something the cook had taught him to make centuries ago. After the ingredients were well mixed, he took several pans out and put them on the stove.

* * *

Steve woke up to the smell of something...good. Although he couldn't immediately put his finger on exactly what it was. He frowned as usually breakfast was leftovers from the last night or cereal, unless he felt like making food. Of course making food would be simple if it was only for himself. But everyone always took some of it, so making food always meant he was doing it for everyone.

Steve didn't mind, he liked to share his food. It was just cooking for so many people, including some with very large appetites, took a long time so he didn't do it very often. Steve padded his way to the elevator hitting the up button after guessing that it was coming from that direction. When the door opened he saw Bruce who was also had his nose tilting up in the direction of the curious smell. The two rose up a few levels to the level that the kitchen was on.

The doors opened and Steve froze. Loki was making breakfast, which was just about the last thing he had expected. He also appeared to be making a lot of it. Steve shared a brief look with Bruce who looked as shocked as he did. Steve was however the first one to recover and made his way to Loki who didn't at first seem to notice him. Loki flipped whatever it was he was making and then looked up at him expectantly.

"You're making breakfast?" Steve asked wishing that didn't sound as stupid as it had coming out. Of course Loki was making breakfast.

"Yes," Loki merely said in response and flipped another one. Which was when Steve noticed that Loki was using all six burners of the stove and somehow managing not to burn any of whatever it was.

"Um...why?" he asked a little awkwardly.

"It helps me," Loki explained as he flipped another one and Steve nodded although that didn't really help in figure him out. Loki looked at him again.

"You guys can eat it if you want to," Loki said before his eyes went back to the food. Steve wasn't sure how to handle this, so it was understandable that Loki continued. "They aren't poisoned," Loki said irritated and took one at random off the tall stack of food that looked like a cross between a pancake and waffle and popped it into his mouth. Steve wasn't sure what to think about Loki; about his change of demeanor, or the fact that he was cooking them breakfast. However, before he could think any further on it, another hand was taking food from the plate. Steve looked up to see Thor piling his plate high with whatever it was they were.

Thor smiled brightly at his brother and said. "Loki, I did not know you could cook!" Thor boomed in his overly loud voice, the one he used when he was excited and forgot about volume control. Loki smiled in response and Steve felt a little strange about his smile. It seemed genuine, much more genuine than he was used to. "Puffed Balls! It's been so long since I've had them!" Thor said with excitement as he buttered them liberally. Steve found himself watching as Thor ate them one after another with relish. Steve looked at Bruce who shrugged and took a plate. Steve shrugged as well. They were going to be eating Loki's cooking, hopefully they wouldn't live to regret it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading please let me know what you think.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers

 

Steve sat down at the tables with the others. He buttered the balls like Thor had, assuming that was how they were usually eaten and after another moment's hesitation put the ball into his mouth. It was was strange. It was sweet, almost like the donut holes that Tony liked so much, only it was different though he wasn't quite sure how. It was, however, good and Steve found himself eating more of the balls that he had piled onto his plate. Steve looked at Loki who was still making the balls and wondered if the amount he was making was too much even for could eat a lot, especially Thor.

Tony was the next person to show up. He looked excited until he caught sight of who was making the food; then he just looked angry.

"Hey, Reindeer Games! What the hell are you doing?" Tony yelled. Loki merely turned around and gestured with a spatula towards the oven top. His eyes obviously saying 'what does it look like I'm doing?'

"You guys are eating something that he cooked?!" he exclaimed incredulously.

"Loki is a good cook," Thor said obviously misunderstanding Tony's statement.

"I doubt poison could kill me," Bruce said with a shrug and kept eating the balls.

"Loki ate one and so did Thor," Steve said and there was a small part of him that was inclined to believe Loki wasn't the bad guy that everyone didn't like.

"My brother would not try to poison us!" Thor said offended, finally understanding why Tony was angry.

"Not even his counterpart would! He would never go for something that overt!" Thor said and Loki nodded as he emptied more balls into the plate that, now that Steve thought about it, was probably held up by magic or else balls piled that high probably would have tumbled down to the floor by now. Tony looked at the balls suspiciously but at the same time a little longingly.

"They are good," Steve offered and Bruce nodded his agreement.

"Yeah, but are they good enough to die for?" Tony grumbled even as Steve could see that he really wanted one. Bruce nodded.

"Just about," Bruce said as he bit into another ball. He knew Tony was starting to wear down, but Steve didn't say anything. If it was poisoned, Thor would probably be resistant, as would Bruce and himself. Tony would be the one most likely to be hurt from any poison, only he was starting to think that maybe Loki and Thor were telling the truth. Even if he wasn't completely convinced.

"What is this?" Tony asked seeming to notice that it wasn't something he recognized.

"It's an Aesir dish," Thor said with his mouth full. Loki turned around and looked at him reproachfully. Thor ducked his head slightly chagrined.

"How good is it?" Tony asked seeming closer to caving.

"Extremely," Bruce said eating another one and Thor and Steve nodded their agreement. They were quite good.

"If I die, you bet your ass I'm going to come back as a ghost and haunt all of you," Tony threatened before taking one and buttering it up and putting it into his mouth. His eyes widened.

"Damn, these are good," he said and grabbed another one. Steve agreed, they were very good even though he looked reproachfully at Tony for the language.

"They are." Tony said defensively. "Pepper would love these," Tony added.

"Sorry, they do not keep well," Loki said. "Which is why I hope you will eat all of this," he said pointing to the enormous stack. Steve was sure that it was enough to feed dozens of people. He also was well aware that some of them tended to eat much more than normal people due to their faster metabolism. Thor, he knew could probably eat a third of the stack on his own, especially since they came from his home world and he seemed to enjoy them so much. Loki sat next to his brother and across from Steve.

"So what are we doing today?" he asked. Thor didn't respond right away due to the food in his mouth.

"There are many places in the world and many that I have not seen before; is there anywhere in particular you would like to go?" Thor asked. Loki shook his head.

"I know very little about this world, so not really," Loki replied. Thor stuffed another what was apparently called a puffed ball into his mouth.

"There is one thing I would like to do first before we go anywhere else. Is that is alright with you?" Loki's eyes narrowed at The Thunderer, slightly suspicious.

"And what is that?"

"There is a game that I've longed to play with..." he trailed off, looking at the people around him slightly embarrassed. "I would like to play it with you," he quickly amended but Steve got the message and he was sure that the others at the table did as well. Thor liked sports, he had always liked sports. But the rest of the team, even Steve who was a biologically enhanced had a bit of a hard time keeping up with Thor, even if he left Mjolnir out of it and just used his brute strength. Loki's eyes narrowed a little bit more and Thor looked slightly uncomfortable now. Loki's gaze was hard to ignore and Steve was glad it wasn't trained on him. The raven-haired being looked like he could see straight through you into your heart and see all your desires and demons with his gaze.

"And what game would this be?" he asked.

"Remember basketball," Loki rolled his eyes.

"I knew it," he said sounding slightly annoyed but at the same time not.

"Please Loki," Thor said giving his best puppy dog face. The one that Thor must have worked on every day for the thousands of years he had been alive, because Steve could not think of any other way his puppy dog face could be so effective. It was apparently even effective on Loki who rolled his eyes but said.

"Fine, but I refuse to spend my whole day playing that," Loki said adamantly. He used his hand to motion to the tower of food and had one of the puffed balls float to him in what seemed an absent-minded way. Steve's eyes focused on the ball as it made its way, without anything touching it, toward Loki who quickly snapped in out of the air and put it down on his plate. He wasn't the only one staring, although the look in Tony's and Bruce's eyes were not of fear, surprise and wariness like his was, but fascination that Steve was sure had to do with the fact that they were both scientists. Loki didn't seem to notice as his attention was on Thor.

"Of course not brother," Thor said in response. Loki stood up from the table grabbing the ball on the plate before doing so.

"Well then, we should get going. The sooner we are done with that the sooner we can get back to sightseeing."

* * *

"Are you going to wear that?" Thor asked as the two of them made their way to the elevator, Loki looked down at his clothes. There was nothing wrong with his clothes, they were proper Asgardian clothes unlike Thor's choice of clothing. In fact, these Midgardian clothes were even more strange. Thor was wearing trousers that only went to his knees and they were of a strange black fabric. His shirt was a light blue and soft looking.

"Why don't you wear your Midgardian clothes?" Thor suggested and Loki shook his head.

"These are fine."

"Are they coming with us?" he said seeing Steve, Tony, and Bruce come towards them.

"I don't know,"

"Friends, are you coming with us?"

"Seeing as Thor is constantly kicking our ass I want to see how it would look with two of you," Stark responded and the three of them made their way into the elevator as well. The trip was quick and soon they in a place similar to the basketball court he had seen before. Only it was much smaller there were not rows of people watching them; in fact, he couldn't see anyone else around. He examined the hoops and the floor before focusing his attention back on his brother. Thor was holding an orange ball, similar to the one that the team had been playing with in his hands and handed it to him.

He looked down at the ball in his hands. Loki remembered the rules well enough from the event before, but he had never held such a ball before in his life. He had to bounce it, he let it fall from his hand and bounced it a few times in place until he was sure he had the motion down and then starting slowly stepping with the ball towards the hoop.

"He looks like he's in a junior league," Tony's voice came to him. Surely they knew that he could hear them? He tried not to be offended at what so obviously was an insult even if he didn't completely understand it. He had never played such a game before but he was sure that he would make the man named Tony eat his taunts in no time at all.

"Crap, forgot about their super hearing," he heard the same man utter again. So it hadn't been intended for him to hear. Loki smirked, he would still make him eat the words. He started to move a little faster down the court though still quite slower than the men in the arena they had watched before. He simply bounced the ball, and didn't do any of the fancier things he had seen the players do at the game. The raven-haired Jotun looked up to see Thor looking at him.

Thor smiled at him in what Loki interrupted as trying to be extra friendly and encouraging after what Stark had said. Loki merely sent him a quick smirk making sure he was facing away from the stands when he did so. Thor thankfully seemed to catch on and didn't send him any strange looks. Loki bounced the ball slowly down the court He was now a couple of feet from the basket thing that he had to get the ball through. Loki shot it only for it bounce off the surrounding board. He really needed to figure out the name of what these things were called, but he would ask later. Loki instead had to retrieve the ball from where it had gone to rest against the stands where spectators could watch. Loki shot again from where he was and it again deflected off the board. Loki heard some quiet laughing and hid his smile. Loki shot a few more times none of them making it in the basket, although a few of them briefly touched it.

"Brother, are you finished?" Thor asked close to him, his voice low enough that no one but him should have heard it. Loki considered it, then nodded. Thor grinned and Loki echoed it. It had been quite a while since they had jointly decided to participate in a prank, even as small as this one was, it was still nice. Thor nodded back and came at him. Loki moved quickly, his speed had always been one of his greatest strengths. The Trickster darted around Thor all the while bouncing the ball as was required by the rules. He had to push himself hard because Thor was trying to get the ball away from him. Loki managed to keep the ball away from Thor for a few moments longer before shooting the ball and watched it go in without touching the backboard. He had been purposely missing on the shots before.

"Holy shit," Tony said astounded. Loki smiled mischievously as he turned around and saw all of them staring at him or Thor; switching between the two of them. Tony looked like he couldn't decide what to think about it, he smiled then frowned, like he couldn't make up his mind. Loki used magic to teleport the ball to himself and then passed it to Thor who caught it.

"Ready to go again?" he asked with a smile that his brother shared.

* * *

They played the game for a few hours, much longer than Loki had been planning to, but he hadn't expected to like it so much. It was an interesting game. It required physical strength, but one could also use their brains to calculate the angle of shooting and to trick Thor to think he was going one way and then going the other.

It was kind of nice to let his speed and strength show in a way that was not physically damaging, but more like a game. He would have enjoyed Asgard more as a child if these were the kind of games they had, rather than the training for war games that had been a large part of their youth. He supposed he knew now that they were necessary since they were a warrior race and committed to helping out others. Still, he was glad that his magic now more than made up for his lack of physical prowess when for much of his life it hadn't.

Loki made one more basket and then held the ball after teleporting it back to himself rather than bouncing it.

"This was fun," Loki admitted to Thor who grinned in response probably because he had feared that Loki would hate the game. Loki had honestly thought that he would. He normally didn't enjoy physical activity, but this had truly been fun.

"I'm glad you thought so brother," Thor's grin deepened the way it did whenever he used the word brother.

"However, we only have a limited amount of time in this world of yours and I would like to see a few more sites today before we retire for the night," Loki said and Thor nodded, he didn't seem too disappointed about it.

"That sounds good," Thor said.

"Okay I need to clean myself first," Loki said and mentally added to himself 'and a change of clothes' as he had changed his mind part way into the game and was wearing clothes like Thor's . He would like a nap as well as it had been awhile since he had worked out. There had been little need since they were always doing kingly stuff and most of that involved sitting rather than fighting. Thor seemed to have enjoyed it as much as he had.

"As do I," Thor said with a nod which Loki returned.

"I'll see you there," Loki said then teleported back to the tower.

* * *

 


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers.
> 
> Unfortunately I'm super swamped with school right now so it might be a bit till I'm able to update again.

 

 

It was the second time that Loki had decided to join him in his workshop. No matter how complicated he had tried to make his lock while Loki and Thor had been out gallivanting it hadn't kept the guy out. But Loki wasn't looking at his suits anymore and hadn't touched them. The Trickster was looking out at the skyline. Tony had grown slightly accustomed to his presence in the hours that he had been there, even if Tony still didn't trust him. Tony found himself looking at Loki's face.

For the last four days, Loki had been different. He hadn't thrown anyone out a window, stolen their mind, or killed anyone. Which really should have been an accomplishment or even worth thinking about, but this was Loki. Loki had cooked for them. He had been pretty civil towards all of them, and most strangely at all didn't give off the deranged, lunatic, diva-like vibe he had last time. Loki suddenly stood up to face him and Tony grabbed his nearest suit just in case. Loki rolled his eyes at him and grabbed a chair and sat down across from him.

"Reindeer games I'm kind of busy," Tony said annoyed and got back to his suit.

"Can I trust you?"

Tony looked incredulous. "You're the god of lies and deception and you want to know if you can trust me?" Tony asked.

Loki smiled tightly.

"I need to know if you can be brutally honest."

"Most people are always telling me to not be," Tony said back.

"Well you don't like me, that much is certain, but you're much more civil with me than the hawk or the widow."

"You took over the hawks mind. That takes you off all our Christmas lists."

"Alright, but what exactly did I make him do?" Loki asked like he had no idea. Tony glared in response.

"Not this again."

"Do you truly not believe me?" Loki asked, sounding both curious and puzzled.

Honestly... Tony wasn't sure. It was like Loki had a personality transplant in the last few days. He hadn't tried to kill anyone, he barely taunted them. He seemed mostly to be annoyed at all of them, except for Thor who he spent the last few days traveling around the world with. He knew that Thor wasn't the smartest person in the universe, that titled belonged to Tony, but Thor actually seemed to trust him. Seemed to think that his outlandish story was actually true. So honestly he didn't know, but if there was even a hell of a chance that the Loki in front of him was the same person that had killed Coulson and tried to kill him even though he survived and Coulson had been resurrected. There was no way they were going to be chummy.

"Okay," Tony said and he went to his computer and pulled up some files. If this was a trick of Loki's then it would work for him. If it wasn't then he was just doing what Loki had asked. He pulled his favorite video up. The video he always watched when he was feeling a little down or needed a good laugh. He was just glad that the security camera hadn't been broken in the fight. He was just sad that that the security camera didn't have sound. Tony had totally fixed that when he had rebuilt the tower. The genius watch in amusement as Loki got up from the ground shouted and then found himself being flung around like a rag doll. Tony turned smugly to look at Loki who didn't look angry or smug, but... honestly he was quite sure, it was a mix between concern, puzzlement, and wonder.

"So that was the Hulk smashing me," Loki said but in a very detached way.

"It looks painful," he said and Tony smiled.

"Yeah, well, after having killed over 100 people you deserved it," Loki head jerked up at stared at him.

"100?" he said.

"Well closer to a thousand," Tony amended and Loki's eyes widened with horror. The genius frowned, was Loki that good of an actor? He was even starting to make Tony believe him. The brunette shook his head and pressed another series of buttons. He had a camera in his suit and when he had hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D the genius had also copied their video of the attack. He cued up the video. The brunette had only watched it once before and had no intention of watching it in its entirety again. Instead, he watched Loki's face which had turned blank the moment the video had started, he looked interested and then puzzled. Tony's gaze flickered to the screen and saw it was the part when the Tesseract was acting strangely. He wished he would have been able to play with the Tesseract rather than Thor taking it. Thor was always taking his things. Now Loki looked concerned and wary.

"What's wrong with him?"

Tony looked at the screen and to see what he was asking about. It was the moment when Loki was just standing there with that mad look in his eyes. Before all the death that was going to follow.

"You're crazy, that's what," Tony said bluntly. Loki ignored him and kept watching the screen. His expression changed from concern and worry, to confusion, then blankness a moment later.

Tony turned around and went back to working on his suit for a bit, occasionally stealing looks at Loki and at the videos. Tony noticed that the longer the video went on the more angry Loki looked...only he wasn't glaring at the Avengers, he was glaring at himself. Which was odd...and a little confusing. He watched at Loki slowly gripped his hands into fists and eventually his knuckles were white from how tightly he was curling his fingers. Loki was a great actor, right? Except the amount of rage on his face for what seemed to be himself, that seemed genuine. God of lies he reminded himself. Very good at manipulating. Loki seemed like he wanted to hit the image of himself in the video though, and while his face was angry it wasn't the

crazy-angry look from before. No, he could not be considering the guy's story. It was outrageous, stupid, and just not possible. Loki was lying, trying to manipulate them for some reason.

Loki stood up and starting pacing up and down the floor. A brief glimpse showed that the videos were over. Loki paced very quickly, but that probably had something to do with him being a very strong alien dude. Loki abruptly stopped and turned to look at Stark.

"I need somewhere to channel my rage," Tony's pulse started racing. He was going to attack him, he was finally going to do it. But before Tony could think any more about it Loki disappeared.

"Jarvis where's Loki?" he asked worried that Loki teleported away and was now taking his rage out on New York City, again.

"Loki is in the training room," his AI responded. Tony blinked slightly surprised and glad that Loki wasn't taking his rage out of the public this time. A video came up and he found the trickster hitting Cap's punching bag with a ferocity that he had only ever seen from Thor before. Tony wasn't exactly sure why, but he found himself exiting his room and making his way to the elevator.

After a short elevator ride, he found that the punches looked even more malevolent from close up. Tony doubted the wisdom of being in the same room as a pissed of, strong as hell, alien, but he even though he was a genius he didn't always do the smart thing.

"Normally I leave all the physical things to Thor," Loki said apparently talking to him even though his back had been to the door. Tony doubted the alien heard the door open over the sound of the punching bag being hit. His voice also came out pretty evenly despite the punching, which made him think that maybe he wasn't exerting as much energy as he could be. Scary thought that was. Of course Tony had always known that Loki was strong, he had thrown him out of a window...with one hand. 'Remember that' he told himself 'Loki threw you out of the window'. This had to be a game of his.

"So what's got you all angry?" Tony asked. Loki paused for a moment, then whispered words under his breath. A stream of green light went around the punching bag and then Loki started somehow hitting it even harder.

"Well...I just watched myself murder countless people...to become the leader of a world I had never been to before four days ago...and I'm angry because a few changes and that would have been me...I would be the madman...who tried to kill my brother...who tried to conquer your world...who tried to kill Jotunheim and my brothers! My brothers who if they are still alive must hate me so much! ...In this world, I am the monster that Thor tried so hard to convince that I wasn't and that I could never be...so excuse me if I'm a little angry about it,"

Loki seemed so genuine in his anger and pain. Tony found himself believing Loki more even as he told himself he was being stupid, being duped. Of course, he needed more information.

"What's Jotunheim?" Thor had told him a little about Loki, but honestly Thor didn't like talking about his brother. Tony had never much liked listening to Thor talk about his brother either, which was why he knew very little about him. After Tony asked the question Loki paused in his abuse of the punching bag but didn't turn around.

"It's where I come from... where I was born. I thought I was of Asgard until I went to Jotunheim and found out otherwise. That is when your Loki went insane and started down the path he is on now."

"Kay, what's different with you?" Tony asked even if he still wasn't 100% certain that he believed Loki, but he had to admit he was starting to.

"Thor wasn't banished in my timeline and our mother became Regent since both Thor and I were in trouble for going to Jotunheim. Thor was angry about that and the fact that his punishment was to be a servant until he could learn humility," Loki laughed a bitter laugh "Two very small changes and that is the only thing that makes me different from that Loki," he said and he laughed again bitterly. "I could very easily be a murderer. I could have killed thousands of my own people, maybe even my brothers. Thor never told me if they died in the attack, but that's just because I don't think he knows," Loki sighed. "They taught me everything about my frost giant powers and while they will never be Thor, I can't imagine killing them or trying to kill Thor, but he did...How can it be that we can be so different when the only thing that's different is a few small things?" Loki turned to face him eyes intent on him.

"Do you see him in me?" Loki asked earnestly. Tony wasn't normally a man lost for words, normally it was quite the opposite, but he wasn't sure how to answer that question. He wasn't sure. Yeah, he looked at him and saw that man that had thrown him out of the window, but Loki also seemed very different. More genuine. More earnest. And there was a part of him that believed that Loki was telling the truth even though he wasn't sure.

"I'm not sure," he said honestly. Loki nodded though he looked a little sad at his response. He went back to the punching bag with a renewed vigor, before he stopped abruptly. He pointed at the wall and the gray mist came back and Tony again found himself wanting to figure out Loki's magic. Two blue smurf-like creatures, both a few feet taller than Loki, appeared on the screen. Loki in his blue smurf visage looked very similar to them.

"These are my brothers," he said by way of explanation. The two of them were honestly very scary looking. Neither of them had hair instead they both had bone sticking out from their heads.

"They look fierce and they can be fierce but their not as rough as you might think them," he said fondly. "My brothers must hate me," Loki said bitterly. The two blue scary smurfs smiled and Tony was torn between thinking it made them look more terrifying or less.

"I wonder if they even know I'm their brother?" Loki said idly.

"He hates that he's a frost giant," Loki said and Tony knew he was talking about the other Loki again. Loki's skin went blue again to match the mist vision of his brothers. Tony was more focused on it this time than he had been the last time. The last time he had been more focused on The Hulk who had looked like he had wanted to redecorate his dining room. It was a strange look, being completely blue and the scar like ridges that completed the look. "But he cannot get rid of it, even if he had managed to kill our entire race. He will always be a frost giant. We will always be a frost giant and no amount of denial or anger can change that. No amount of world ruling will either," he said and Tony felt despite himself slipping more solidly into believing Loki. Criminals generally weren't this self-aware and not nearly so honest, especially about themselves. Loki had been crazy and Tony doubted he would ever speak about something so incredibly personal to him. In fact, Loki seemed more self-aware than Tony was.

"He will never be happy and neither will Thor," Loki said unhappily. "He seems doomed to make the same mistake over and over again thinking maybe that ruling will make him happy, but it won't."

"Why not?" Tony asked curiously, then cursed himself inwardly, he was falling into Loki's trap. He was a genius, he couldn't fall into Loki's trap!

"You are like a king are you not?" Loki asked, apparently he gotten to know a little more about their world. Tony shrugged, he had never thought about tit that way. Yes, he had a lot of money, and yes he had lots of power, and lots of people that worked for him.

"Does being the President of your company make you happy?" he asked and Tony shook his head. Did he like having money? Did he like having power? Yes, but it only had made him satisfied. His products were what made him proud and excited. Pepper and his friends, including the Avengers, were what made him happy. Tony shook his head, that was a little too much introspection for him at the moment.

"If Loki is anything like me, he will find that being King would not be nearly as fun as he thinks it is. Yes, more people would have to respect him, at least to his face, but it will not make him happy," Loki said then started hitting the punching bag again with more vigor. Tony found himself edging out of the room. The brunette really didn't want to be in the same room or hear any more things from Loki that would make him rethink his opinion on the guy.

 

 


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Thor or Avengers
> 
> I'm sorry that it's been so long since I've updated I've got crazy writers block and other problems as well but i won't make you wait any longer.

The Midgardian had a curious collection of breakfast foods. Most of which came in pellet form and apparently required milk to complete it. Loki was currently eating something called Lucky Charms. There were no charms and Loki felt a little disappointed although it was rather sweet and he had always had a bit of a sweet tooth. If it wasn't so early he might go back to Chelsea Market as they had had some quite good food. Or he could cook again, except that he had already eaten and he wasn't feeling particularly hungry just slightly unsatisfied.

No one was up yet since Stark had just gone to bed but Loki was okay with that after his heart to heart with Tony. He just hoped that Tony could keep what he had said to himself, because he had said things that he had wanted to say for awhile now but things he wasn't sure he wanted Thor to know. Especially when he knew that Thor already felt guilty about it even though it hadn't been his fault.

It had been this world Loki's fault. He had a lot of anger towards him at the moment. Loki shook his head, he didn't really want to think about that about the moment. His brain hardly ever listened to him and flashed back to the images he had seen on the Midgardian screen, him killing and grinning about it like he was happy to be destroying lives. How had two choices led Loki to becoming the man who looked so happy destroying humans? What did this mean for his secondary plan for Loki? Was it feasible after what he had just learned? Was he kidding himself?

Loki jumped as someone sat down across from him at the table. He cursed himself quietly under his breath for letting someone sneak up on him when he was normally much more aware of his surroundings. He looked up and was glad it was Thor. Loki was pretty sure he couldn't deal with any of the others at the moment. Still, it was kind of early for Thor to be up. The blonde usually wasn't up for another hour or two. Tony didn't talk to him did he? Loki looked questionably at Thor whose eyes were at half mast and he was leaning on his elbows against the table. Loki found himself focused on Thor's elbows. Thor must have learned it from the humans because since the time he and Thor had been children their mother had never allowed them to put their elbows on the table. His hair wasn't combed either and was hanging wildly around, but most of all he looked tired. Thor noticed Loki's gaze and sighed.

"I couldn't sleep," he admitted. Loki nodded he wasn't sure he wanted to know why so he didn't ask, however if Thor decided to tell him he would listen.

"Obviously," Loki said instead. Thor looked at him with a hint of a glare in his eyes which probably had more to do with the exhaustion that seemed to exude from his pores more than his words. He stopped looking at him after a long moment and longingly at the machine that made that dark liquid all the humans liked. He was pretty sure he heard it called a coffee machine.

"You know how much coffee you would have to drink in order for it to be effective," Loki said and Thor nodded sadly but still kept looking at it.

"What time is it?" Thor asked after a few more moments while he lowered his arms onto the table and rested his head on top of them. Loki was sure that their mother would roll over in her grave if she saw it. Loki looked at the wall where there was an electronic clock.

"It's 5:36," he said. In response to this news Thor groaned. Loki couldn't help but smile Thor was acting like a child. His brother was acting very Midgardian and so very unkinglike. Loki couldn't help the chuckle that came out of his mouth. Thor looked up from his arms looking very unamused. His brother was not a morning person. It often surprised people that Thor's normal intense and mostly bubbly personality didn't come out until at least a half hour after waking up if he had a short night.

"I'm sorry," Loki said even though he wasn't really and it was apparent by the smile still firmly on his face. Thor just glared at him for a moment longer before lowering his head onto his arms again. Loki decided to let him be until he was awake enough to be himself. Loki picked up one of the books he was reading, it was one of Stark's book about mechanics. It was so interesting to read to see what Midgardians got wrong and right in regard to machines and technology.

"Loki, I'm hungry," Thor said and Loki rolled his eyes but put his book down. His brother was always hungry.

"I'm not making breakfast today." he told his brother in no uncertain terms, he wasn't in the mood, especially not after last night.

"Then I will take you to breakfast," his brother said with a wide grin. Loki wasn't hungry but he knew that his brother was like a bilgesnipe with a carcass when he was in a mood like this. Sometimes it was just easier to go with it than be trampled underfoot.

"Alright," Loki said and got up from the table as did Thor.

"Where do you want to go?" Loki asked. Thor blinked then realized what Loki was asking and Thor briefly grasped his head and projected an image into it.

"I shall meet you there," Loki said and then teleported away.

The place that Thor wanted to get breakfast was apparently called Denny's and surprisingly it was still open even at this early hour. There were several other people there too, but in a city that never sleeps he supposed it wasn't all that strange. They received no attention because Thor also was wearing a glamor too which meant that no one in the diner but he and Thor knew that he and Thor were dining there. If they knew he was dining there would be news crews and helicopters and people trying to capture him and or kill him. If they knew Thor was there they would be swarming him. Thor had gotten that a few times before he had asked Loki to glamor him as well. To everyone else they were two average Midgardians. Loki bit his lip as he glanced down at the menu, there were so many choices of food and he thought that Asgard had too much variety and too much food Midgard seemed to have so much more. There were ten different ways he could have pancakes, whatever they were. Thor said they were a little like butter rolls. In the end, Loki decided to get chocolate chip pancakes and Thor got steak and eggs.

While they waited for their food, Loki glanced around the busy restaurant at the people most of whom were dressed in business suits and were probably on their way to work. Again Loki was hit by the differences between Midgard and Asgard. The Aesir wore suits of armor, not business suits and spent most of their time training or, at least, the soldiers and those of noble birth did. He had hated that that was expected of him growing up. Loki shook his head and focused on Thor rather than the differences between the two worlds.

Thor was focusing on the sun which was starting to rise although they couldn't really see it due to all the buildings blocking their view. He looked to be in awe, Loki could guess why. Thor wasn't usually up at such an hour and if he was then he certainly wasn't feeling very appreciative or looking at the sun. It wasn't like his brother slept the day away, he was king after all but he probably didn't get up this early very often. Loki smiled slightly as he felt more in awe of sunrise than he usually did cloning some of his brother's mood. The two of them stared at the colors of the sunrise until a waitress dropped their plates off at their table. Loki's attention was drawn to his plate which had four huge pancakes on it. It was actually two orders, but he was Jotun and they were going probably going to be teleporting later which required a lot of energy. It smelled delicious and the chocolate shown from inside the pancake which appeared to be a floppy circle of bread. The whole thing had some sort of cream on it with chocolate shavings. Loki dug his fork into the pancake and out oozed chocolate, spilling a little onto the plate. Loki wanted to get cram the entire thing into his mouth but managed to eat at a sophisticated and leisurely pace while Thor shoveled down his food with the same enthusiasm that Loki wanted but didn't allow himself.

Loki did however managed to eat the four large pancakes in good time and even though he wasn't hungry, he was tempted to order more. He was really going to have to get the recipes of the foods he liked on Midgard before he went back to his own world. He supposed he could probably get them from his own Midgard, but in case things were too different he wanted to make sure. He looked up at Thor who was done and just waiting for him to finish.

"So, what are we doing today?" he asked Thor who again looking at the sunrise which had advanced a little further rather than the just small amount of pink. There were now oranges and reds in the sky. "What part of the world are we seeing?" The world was so large and he had only been to a few countries in the few days that they had been touring Midgard. Thor looked from the sunrise to Loki and breathed in and out deeply.

"I know there's something that you would like, only it's here in New York rather than somewhere else. But it's not far away so we can walk from here," Thor said waving the waitress over frustrating Loki because he couldn't ask the questions that he wanted at that moment. Thor paid with what apparently was called a credit card that had something to do with money. Thor didn't really understand it so he hadn't really given Loki a satisfactory explanation. He just said that Tony gave him the card and that whatever was on it was considered money on Midgard. When the waitress left the two of them stood although they left money behind apparently it was called a tip. The two of them made their way back into the streets which were fuller and busier than they had been when they had walked in.

He hated walking, although he hated flying more. Actually, he didn't mind walking it was just in New York he wasn't a big fan of it. There were too many people around and they stood too close to you and it made him a little uneasy. He looked at Thor who was focused on maneuvering his way through the crowd.

They walked for about fifteen minutes before Thor stopped and Loki stopped as well Thor was standing directly in front of him not allowing him to see much beyond him. Thor looked...guilty? Loki frowned why would his brother look guilty? Was this about the other Loki again?

"I know the past few days I've dragged you along on things I liked to do but I knew that once I showed you where we're going you'd probably never want to leave," Thor admitted. If that didn't make him even more curious about where they were going he wasn't sure what would. Thor moved aside and the building his form had been blocking came into view.

"This is New York's public library." Loki's eyes widened A library? He loved libraries they contained books, and this one would contain so many books that he hadn't already read. Loki darted up the stairs and heard some chuckling from behind him. He didn't care, let Thor make fun of him for his love of books. He froze as he viewed all the shelves of books in front of him, full of books that he had never read before. The library at home had long ago been picked apart and any book he had found remotely interesting he had already read. He was over a thousand years old after all.

"Thank you, Thor," Loki said and then rushed off to go find himself a good book to read.

* * *

"How can you read in here?" Thor asked since there were several tourists around and it very noisy. Loki didn't look up from his book, Thor hesitated for a moment before tapping his shoulder. Loki looked up at him with the familiar annoyance he had on his face for whenever anyone interrupted him while he was reading , even if it was for meals. Thor had never known anyone to be so captivated by books, especially ones that Thor had always considered boring. Loki waved his hand slightly not enough for anyone else to realized what it was but Thor did. Thor glared at him and Loki rolled his eyes and waved his arm again.

"What was I supposed to do?" Loki asked at Thor's look he nodded and said. "Yes I used a spell and now I've included you in it." Thor frowned and noticed the noise around him was muted and all he could hear was Loki.

"So they can't hear us?" Thor asked.

"No," Loki confirmed shaking his head, "How else am I supposed to be able to concentrate?" Loki asked and Thor nodded understanding, it could be a little loud he had never been there before it was just something that he had heard about and thought Loki would like. His eyes were drawn to the spine of books as Loki's eyes darted back to his book and he knew his brother was lost again to their words. Nothing near where they were sitting at a small wooden table with wooden chairs held any interest to him. He looked for the nearest window but found that they weren't close to one. After what seemed like ages, Loki spoke again, startling him as he was focused on the wood grains of the table.

"Thor what are you still doing here? I know how bored books make you." Loki said knowingly looking up from his book. Or was it a different one? His brother was a fast reader.

"I'm fine." Thor insisted even though he was sure even if his brother wasn't the god of lies he'd still know he was lying. Thor was bored, books had never been interesting to him unless they were about past wars or techniques and even then he preferred a hands-on lesson. The blond couldn't understand how his brother could spend so much standing so still and just reading just like his brother couldn't understand why he liked things that had to do with challenging your body as much as he did. 1000 years and they both couldn't understand each other's main interests still. Still, they only had four weeks tops together and then all he'd have was the crazy power hungry version of his brother. This was, of course, assuming Loki's plan would work which Thor thought it would. If anyone could guess the best way to capture his brother it was his brother. Still, it was like a dream being with a version of his brother that didn't have the mad glint in his eyes that he was used to, like he was planning something. It was like they were children again though Loki was wickedly powerful and different as well. Thor wasn't sure how he'd handle it when Loki eventually had to go back to his own world, although, he supposed that it would be like the two times he had thought Loki was dead all over again. He was glad the second instances hadn't been for terribly long.

"Thor, either read a book or find something to do," Loki insisted. Thor opened his mouth to argue.

"I promise I will not go anywhere, except, maybe to find another stack of books. Go somewhere. Do something fun and then in a few hours we can go home and do something else," Thor didn't want to go but at the same time he was terribly bored just sitting here. Staring at the ceiling and some of the other features of the library had held his attention for a little while but had long since lost it. Thor nodded and made his way to his feet.

"There is a market not far from here I will go there and I will meet you back here in a few hours," Thor promised and Loki nodded his head but he already seemed to be back in his book. Thor had always admired Loki's ability to concentrate.

A few hours later and Loki was in the exact same spot with the exact same look on his face. The only thing that was different was the book in his hands, before he had left it had been brown, this one was green. Thor sat down next his brother again who was too absorbed in the book he was reading to notice.

"Loki," he finally said and Loki briefly looked up at him annoyed before looking down at his book again. He read a little longer then stopped and put the book down.

"Had to finish the page," his brother was also a little compulsive in that way as well. Thor looked at the title of the book.

"I watched that movie," Thor said and Loki frowned.

"Movie? I heard it referenced a few times but I'm not sure I understand what that is." Loki said reluctantly. His brother never did like admitting that he didn't know something.

"It's like projections but they aren't real and they are used to entertain. They're like stories we tell at feasts only not," Thor said haltingly not sure how to explain it. In many ways, they were technologically superior to the humans but they had spent more on them time on weapons and space travel. And although they liked to have fun most of their culture was based on war. They had never gotten around to making movies because that would require actors which he wasn't sure they had enough people in their world that would want to do such a thing for it to happen. In fact, he was sure that most people on Asgard would rather train than watch a movie, especially after only hearing the idea. When it had been brought up to him the first time he hadn't exactly been excited at first either but he had slowly grown fond of movies.

"We can watch one tonight if you'd like," he told Loki who looked pensive but after a moment nodded. Thor smiled, he had never imagined that he would ever watch a movie with his brother in the Avengers and tonight they would.

"Before we go watch the movie there's a food place I want to go to," Thor nodded he was always up for food.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the subject of writers block if you have any suggestions for activities I and they spark something in me/my muse likes it I will write it into the story.


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers.
> 
> Sorry it's been so long I got a new job recently and last week I worked 48 hours so I've been a bit busy.

 

Loki wasn't exactly quiet. Thor had watched movies with the other Avengers many times who had told him to be quiet during it. Although they did not always follow their own advice none of them talked as much during the movie as Loki was during this one. The two of them were on one of the many nice couches in Stark's entertainment room, a black couch facing the enormous screen in front of them.

None of the others were in the room. A few of the Avengers had been drawn in by the smell of the food that they had brought home after their excursion in the city, they had left soon after though as they had already seen the movie they were watching and none of them seemed to want to re-watch it in his brother's presence. He would probably mind the talking more if he hadn't already seen the movie more than once.

Loki kept pointing out the differences from the book, not to mention the differences in how magic worked and kept calling everything impossible. Thor couldn't exactly counter anything Loki said since he wasn't aware of the book or of a good deal of magic and magical laws. However, he had always enjoyed the fighting and the races of elves, dwarves, and magic users made the movie seem more like home to him than much of Midgard. It was a long movie, but thankfully about halfway through Loki had gotten pulled into the story and had stopped pointing out the differences and only scoffed occasionally when apparently something was impossible. Thor too was pulled into the movie and he was startled when Loki suddenly stood up as the credit starting rolling.

"There's something wrong with it!" He cried. Thor chuckled at his brother's reaction and Loki glared at his response.

"That was the end of the first movie. Each book is one movie and they are each about this length." Loki's eyes flicked back to the TV screen wistfully. Thor yawned stretching his arms above his head, as he did so he looked out the window. The sun had been down for quite some time now and he wondered what time it was. Undoubtedly it was quite late, probably early morning. He may not know what time it was but he could feel the weariness in his bones now that his attention wasn't so fully captured by the movie. He did not have his brother's ability to function on little sleep and his body reminded him again of this fact as he yawned yet again.

"Then we should watch the next one," Loki said bringing Thor's attention back to the room and away from the bed that his mind was mentally drifting towards. Thor smiled weakly at his brother's eagerness but knew that watching another movie that night for him would be impossible.

"It's too late at night for me, but I can put another one on if you would like," He offered. Even though he wanted to watch them with his brother, he didn't have to. Loki looked between the TV and him a few times with a look of hesitance written all over his face. Thor picked up the remote and changed it to the television channels.

"Or you can watch something else," Thor said flipping the channels wondering if there was anything worthwhile to watch at this early hour. He looked at his brother's face as he changed channels only to see his brother's eyes go wider and wider at the constantly changing television screen.

"Are you okay Loki?" He asked his brother concerned. Loki's eyes flickered to him momentarily but remained on the TV.

"There's just so much of it." He replied, his voice tinged with a slight amount of detectable awe in it. Thor nodded, he understood. When he had first arrived in Midgard he too had been startled by the amount of entertainment, a kind that didn't exist in Asgard existed here and such large amounts as well. He wished he could stay and watch his brother's awe more but his eyes were drooping and he knew that it was not to be. Instead, he handed the remote to his brother trusting that his brother would figure it out sooner or later and headed up to bed.

* * *

After figuring out how to work the small device that Thor had given him, he watched various programs for a few minutes before switching it to another program. He saw pieces of things. Nothing that really made sense. But he couldn't seem to keep it on any program long enough to understand it as his thirst for knowledge and his curiosity didn't allow him to stay with anything long enough. After about an hour of it, he couldn't take any more new information in and he managed to turn the device off. He sat gazing at the now blank device unsure how to deal with the new onslaught of information. His eyes sought something else to focus on and he found himself gazing at the night's sky. He made his way over to one of the large windows and looked intently at the sky but due to the pollution and lights there were a lot less stars to see here than back home. Loki had glanced at an astrology book at the library and had copied a few pages down that he had wanted to look at later. He called the pages into his hands but looking at them did nothing as he could hardly see more than a star or two and he couldn't be positive that they actually were stars .

He considered teleporting to a forest somewhere so he could see the stars more clearly and had nearly made up his mind to go when he heard someone walk into the room and sit down behind him. Loki's eyes momentarily left the sky and his thoughts and he turned to see which Midgardian it was because he knew it wasn't Thor. It was Stark holding a cup of something. Loki allow didn't his surprise or confusion show because that wasn't like him.

"What are you doing?" Stark asked taking a drink of the liquid in his cup.

"Failing to find constellations due to your light pollution," Loki said thinking even more about finding a forest or something to go to so he could find constellations.

"That sounds boring," Stark said bluntly lifting the handless cup to his lips. It was most likely Midgardian alcohol. He had never tried it but he had heard from Thor it was much less potent than Asgardian mead. Stark wasn't accusing him of anything. How strange. Did that mean that he was starting to believe him? Or was he trying to deceive him in some way?

"Astronomy is of some interest to me," Loki admitted. It had never been his top interest but throughout the centuries his eyes had been drawn to the stars and he could identify many constellations back on Asgard. Stark didn't comment further but also didn't move. The Midgardian perplexed him and for some reason Loki decided to keep talking "How far out would I have to go to be able to see the stars?" he asked Stark who turned to him briefly, just long enough to raise his eyebrows and shrug his shoulders before looking away. Loki sighed as even though he wasn't alone he might as well have been as Stark now seemed to be ignoring his existence -yet he was still there.

For what purpose he didn't know and it was slightly irritating having Stark just standing there watching him. He tried to move to see if that would help both distance himself from the light so that he could better see the stars and put some space between him and Stark. It accomplished creating distance between him and the man of iron but did nothing to help him view the stars in the sky.

"We're the city that never sleeps," Stark added not very helpfully as he was aware of this by the amount of lights that were still on even at the late hour.

"And I thought I had abnormal sleeping habits," Loki muttered under his breath. He gave up looking at the stars for the moment and focused on all the light around the city. The Stark Tower was tall as well. He could see a good deal of the city from up there. Even after living in the tower for five days, and once the sun came up it would be six, as fascinating as it was he was still unused to being in this city, and on this planet. He missed Asgard. His Asgard, his brother and his kingdom, but at the same time loved being exposed to a new culture without having any responsibility. It was freeing, fun at least when it was Thor and himself. He was still tired of having to deal with constant mistrust and suspicion from everyone else. Though at least, this time, Stark wasn't actively speaking his mistrust and anger with his other world counterpart.

"Yeah, well, join the club," Stark said apparently having heard the dark-haired Jotun's comment, he didn't say anything else though and merely turned around and went back inside. Loki looked quizzically at the man as he left, not sure how to take his reaction. Yes, Stark had not constantly taunted him but he had also said nothing about his belief in Loki's word changing. Honestly, he wasn't sure that it meant anything. Perhaps the man was just tired? He didn't and couldn't know for sure and time could only tell. Loki's eyes flickered to the sky again. He wanted to see the stars and he had a vague idea on how to do that. He fixed the picture of where he wanted to go in his mind and teleported away.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading :)


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers.
> 
>  
> 
> A/N: Sorry it's been awhile since I last updated. School, work and writer's block have been kicking my behind.

 

He had spent a few hours entranced by the light in one of the forests they had been to during the daylight, charting out paths to unknown stars until the lure of sleep had finally pulled him and he teleported back to the tower to sleep.

* * *

Loki had gotten back from wherever he had gone without him hours after Thor had awoke and started to worry about him. The only thing that Jarvis had been able to tell him was that Loki had teleported away in the early hours of the morning. He was sure that Loki hadn't abandoned him but he didn't like not knowing where his brother was or if he was in any danger. Without knowing if he was in danger, he could not save him. His brother could be anywhere with people who thought he was the Loki who had created such darkness wherever he went.

He was not able to quiet those fears until Jarvis told him that Loki had teleported back and just when he had been about to confront him Jarvis told him that Loki had fallen asleep. Loki, when he got entranced in things, often kept odd hours, particularly if no one mentioned to him the importance of sleep. It was likely in this case Loki had merely been caught up with what whatever he was doing and and had lost track of time than any true meaning to make him worry for his brother's safety.

Still, it meant that he would have to wait for his brother to arise. It wouldn't take too long especially now as he had already waited a few hours. A few of which he had used to call Jane as she was one of the few people who would be up at such an hour. His brother didn't need much sleep so he would be waking soon. But Thor was never a big fan of waiting, though as king he had gotten quite a bit better at it than he used to be. He let out a large breath of air and he settled his head onto his arms again waiting for his brother to arise. There was probably something better he could be doing with his time but he could not think of what that was.

"Where's" Thor sat up and turned his head at the word and saw Tony looking around the kitchen most likely for his brother but the left the question unfinished.

"He's still asleep," Thor said regretfully and settled his head back where it had been before Tony's intrusion. Tony didn't leave though he sat down next to him and Thor sighed. He didn't really wish to hear more accusations from the man or really anything other than his brother's voice. Today was the sixth day they were here which meant that nearly a week had passed since they had come to Midgard. It meant that his time with his brother who didn't loathe him to the depths of his core was running out.

Besides, soon, if SHIELD agreed they were more focused on finding and stopping his brother rather than enjoying all of Midgard comforts. Though, he was sure there would still be some time for that, there would be a lot less than there was now. He was not looking forward to that part of their trip, plus it would mean confronting his actual brother. Seeing the madness in the depth of his eyes again which would be worse in contrast with the eyes he was familiar seeing if only for the past few weeks. This train of thought was making him weary, but he had already rested enough so that he knew that he could not slumber though he wished that he could.

* * *

Tony's POV

Tony stumbled into the kitchen and caught Thor laying his head down on the kitchen table. He looked at the blond is bemusement. He wasn't sure that he had ever seen Thor lay his head down on the table like that before.

"Where's-" The word was out of mouth before he could even think about stopping it and he looked around for the blond's shadow.

"He's still asleep." Thor said regretfully, furrowing into his arms again. His blond buddy seemed really bummed out for some reason, and yet Tony didn't move away he sat down beside the big blond and looked at the table. The same thoughts that had been crashing through way very unwelcomingly through his head returned. Ever since the night that Loki had watched himself on camera they had unwelcomingly made themselves at home. Everything that was off about this situation. Loki's demeanor, his eyes, his actions, the fact that hadn't thrown him out of any windows this time around, they all lined up with the line that The Trickster was trying to peddle.

Loki was crazy and tried to kill him. He was great at deceiving people, was even known as the god of lies. If anyone could act so very different from himself convincingly it would be Loki, he reminded himself. Still, he had pegged Loki as the proud kind and not the kind who was likely to to be sit with those that had defeated them. _Unless he had a long term plan and that was the reason for the whole deception_ a doubtful voice in the back of his head spoke.

"I can't believe that I'm even thinking about it," Tony muttered to himself under his breath. A quick look at Thor proved that either Thor was either too lost in his thoughts to hear him or he had said it quietly enough for him not to hear it. He shouldn't be thinking about it because it was crazy. The thought there was some Loki out there in another universe who wasn't crazy, that just somehow managed to mozy his way on down to their universe was ridiculous. Wasn't it? It had to be, because it couldn't be true? Could it?

Was he maybe letting his feelings toward the little trickster get in the way of what his instincts were telling him? Then again his instincts had never been that trustworthy to begin with. He had trusted Obediah and look how that whole thing had turned out. He huffed, frustrated that he seemed caught in the same loop again and again with seemingly no way out. Except that there was…maybe. He turned to Thor, perhaps he had unconsciously sought him out.

"Thor," he said softly to the being even though he was sure his friend didn't want to talk at the moment, Tony kind of needed to. Thor reluctantly pulled his head around from his arms and looked at him demurely. Tony took a deep breath and bit the bullet.

"Are you 100% sure that Loki isn't the man who threw me out the window." Thor stared at him for a long moment before nodding his head.

"Yes, I would not have let him out of Asgard if I thought that he was the same person." Thor said with what seemed like absolute certainty. He wasn't sure how Thor could believe him with an absence of proof. A DNA test wouldn't prove anything as it would likely be the same for both. There was no way to know for sure if Loki was telling the truth.

"What makes you believe him?" he needed to know. Thor looked away thoughtfully for a few moments before looking back.

"He's hasn't been like this in years and he showed me his memories. You have no idea how difficult it is to fake a memory."

"But you said Loki was smart right? So if anyone could do it would be him right?" Tony asked. Thor nodded but continued his support of Loki by saying.

"I think the strongest reason for believing him is his genuineness. The Loki I know is used to hiding his emotions, except for when he is feeling particularly volatile."

"Which is when he liked to throw people out of windows." Thor nodded looking apologetic like it was his fault that his brother had thrown him out of his own building. Then again Thor was right, Loki seemed very genuine.

"But he could fake being genuine right?" Tony thought aloud to which Thor nodded in response.

"He is very good at deceiving but he admitted to things that he did not have to and Loki has never admitted to doing anything that he didn't have to. Loki's first inclination has always been to lie and dig himself into a further hole with his lies rather than admit the truth." Okay from what he knew of The Thunder's brother that sounded like him but what did it really mean? There was only one way to know.

"What did he admit?"

"He admitted that he manipulated me into going to Jotunheim in the first place." At Tony's blank look Thor elaborated "It was my going there that got me banished to Midgard in the first place without my power. There is also a slightly more personal reason. Loki isn't one talk about his feelings. Yell at someone, or get revenge, or use his words to hurt but actually talking about his feelings he hasn't done in years, at least not to me."

"What personal reason?" Tony asked curiously.

"I cannot tell you everything since it was extremely personal but it was a memory of my other self finding out about Loki's heritage. My other counterpart reacted much better to it then I did," Thor said casting his guilt filled eyes down to the ground.

"I told you that was my fault," Loki said full of annoyance seeming to step from the shadows. Tony found himself a little nervous as they had just been talking very frankly about him.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long," Loki said but mostly seemed to dismiss his presence instead focusing on The Thunderer in front of him "Thor, I told you I'm an adult. I made my own mistakes." Wow, Loki was trying to get his brother to feel less guilty and take responsibility for his own actions. That's nothing like he would ever imagine Loki doing.

"But if I had been there-" Thor tried to say but Loki interrupted him.

"If I hadn't manipulated you, you would have been-"

"Loki-" Thor tried to interrupted but Loki firmly stopped him.

"Thor. Whatever happened, happened. You cannot change the past. The only thing you can do is move forward. I will not hear anymore of this do you understand? It was not your fault. Are we clear?" Thor didn't look like he agreed but he nodded anyways. Leaving Tony to look at the two of them with his mouth opened wide in disbelief like he was a frickin goldfish. Loki just reassured Thor and this was making him doubt his doubts even more. Honestly, the whole scene had sort of blown his mind. Thor looked away from Loki to the floor probably in an attempt to gather himself before he looked at The Trickster again.

"Do you want to go to the library again?" Thor asked even though it was clear from his face that he didn't want for Loki to go back there. Loki shook his head and Thor looked visibly grateful for that.

"One day was enough. When I get back I can spend months pouring over their books. What I really want to do is spend today with you." Thor smiled and Loki smiled as well but Thor's had a bit of bitter tinge to it, probably at the reminder that Loki was going to go away again.

"What do you want to see? What do you want to do?" Thor asked his brother whose smile widened slightly.

"There is still more of this world to see and I'm sure we can find something to do." Thor smiled back, this smile less strained. "Now where haven't we been?" Loki asked putting his hand lightly on the back of his brothers head.

"I have yet to show you this place called Hawaii," The grey mist was back and a single picture filled with palm trees and rich vegetation filled it. Loki broke contact and the mist went away.

"I will see you in this Hawaii then," he said and then disappeared. Thor with a slight spring in his step made his way out of the kitchen presumably heading to the roof, without a single backwards look.

Tony realized the two of them had completely ignored him, and seemed to have forgotten of his existence. While that might make him feel irritable in another circumstance, in this one he was glad. He was able to observe their interaction giving him a front row seat to the reason that Thor believed that this wasn't the crazy trickster who had tried to subjugate them all…and after seeing that...he believed him. Damn.

 


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't own nothing
> 
> Sorry, it took so long...onto the story.

"Do the words frost giant mean nothing to you?!" Loki shouted as soon as Thor showed up from their disastrous attempt at Hawaii. It had started out nicely enough. The place had been full of beautiful vegetation, plant life, and animals. Even the beaches had been pleasant...from a distance. Thor had wanted to go for a swim, and had somehow managed to convince him to come into the beach area. Unfortunately, it had become terribly hot for him rather quickly. He had teleported home when his skin started to feel like it was starting to burn. Loki had always had heat sensitive skin but the beach area with its white sands seemed to make it that much more unbearable.

"I'm sorry Loki. We've been to beaches before," he said sorrowfully and Loki sighed because he knew that Thor hadn't done it on purpose to hurt him. It could be something specific to the earth, or that beach in particular that had affected him so badly. But it was hard not to be irritated when his skin was still healing and he was still covered in sunburns... or maybe it was the sun's alignment with their planet. But it didn't matter. He wondered briefly if he changed to his frost giant skin if that would cool the burn or make it that much more unbearable. He didn't want to risk it and instead laid face down on the nearest couch.

"Is there anything you need?" he heard his brother ask.

"It's fine Thor. It will be healed within the hour," Loki said, even if it would likely be painful until then.

"I can get a Midgardian medicine, that may help it feel better." Thor offered and after a moment of consideration he nodded his acquiescence. After all, even if Midgardian medicine didn't help him, it wasn't likely to make the burn worse. He hissed sharply as he felt a hand on his burning back, his back went rigid in pain...only the pain lessened after a few moments as something wet was rubbed into his back.

"What is this?" he asked as he couldn't see it and could only feel it.

"It's something the Midgardians call Aloe Vera. It is helpful with healing especially in the case of sunburns," He continue on though he said this with a tinge of regret.

"There is also something called sunblock but I did not think that you would need it," he said regretfully. Loki did his best to bite back his irritation that this pain may have been avoided and concentrated on the soothing feeling that was coming from the liquid being rubbed into his back. Soon the pain was much more bearable and was more of a dull pain rather than a searing one. He put his hand up to let Thor know he could stop. The hand moved away and he could see his brother again. Thor looked quite sorrowful still.

"Look, Thor, I know you didn't mean for this to happen and soon it will all be healed." Thor nodded but didn't look any happier.

"Oh my god what the hell is wrong with his back!" Loki's eyes darted to Stark who was looking at his back in horror. Exactly how burned was it? He had never seen it, only felt it. Loki resisted the urge to try to look at it knowing doing so would only cause his back to twist increasing the pain.

"I'm a frost giant. I must have had a reaction to either your earth's sun directly on my back or there was something about that particular beach that was hostile to my DNA." He hated being in this position. If the man was poised to attack him, his back was exposed and already injured making him incredibly easy prey for the man. He would just have to trust Thor to protect him. He didn't like having to rely even on Thor for his physical safety, particularly from a Midgardian. Stark's eyes were still wide and focused on his back. He wanted to see it but that would require moving. Loki could touch it but he could only cringe at the pain that would bring. Only lying here motionless was keeping the pain at a bearable level. He closed his eyes and let the magic he normally kept in reserve even when he was in need of healing out and let it aid his natural healing that much more.

"Wow you are healing fast," Stark said as he gazed intently at his back. Loki looked to Thor for an explanation.

"You're back looked like you had been in a fire. It was severely burned. The scars are dissipating," Thor explained what was going on visually with his back.

"Yeah, but there's still a ton there," Stark said helpfully. Loki looked up at that. Why was Stark being helpful? Why was he even still there at all? He decided to look not a gift horse, even if it was likely a temporary gift horse in the mouth.

"Is there anything else that would soothe you?" His brother asked.

"The Casket," he said even though he knew that was impossible. With the casket, it would all go away. He had given his casket back to his brothers a long time ago and there was no way that this Asgard would let him access it, especially for something as minor as a sunburn. As bad as it was it would heal soon. Thor didn't respond which is when he remembered all the damage his other self had done with the casket. Fantastic, he couldn't seem to help stepping into those kind of mines.

"Water," he amended. He heard Thor scurry away to get him some….leaving him alone with Stark. That had not been what he had been intending. He lifted up his eyes to focus them on Stark. Was Stark going to attack him now that he was alone and vulnerable? If he had to, he could fight as he was, but it would be terribly painful. Stark though wasn't moving towards him just seemed to be looking at him.. and was that sympathy he saw in his gaze as Stark looked down at his back. That couldn't be true. Stark loathed him and wouldn't' listen to him anytime he had tried to tell him that he was not the man that he hated.

He watched the Midgardian warily until Thor came back into the room with a glass of water with a red and white straw in it. Loki lifted out a hand and Thor handed it to him. He liked straws. He had come across them on his first day in Midgard and had only grown fond of them the more he used them. He was going to take straws back to Asgard too. At the moment though straws meant that he could sip from the cup without sitting up and subjecting himself to unnecessary pain. The heat had also caused him slight dehydration but everything had happened so fast that the burns on his back had been the more urgent matter. The water felt soothing to his mouth and he drank the whole tall glass easily giving it back to Thor when he finished it all.

"Would you like more?" Loki nodded an affirmative then winced as it pulled slightly on his still sensitive skin. Thor left the room again leaving him once again alone and exposed, but Stark had not attacked him like the last time, neither physically or verbally... so perhaps he would extend him the kindness again? Stark was still looking at him, in particular, his back with a fascination that felt odd.

"How the hell do you heal so fast?" he said. Oh, so he was fascinated by his healing. At least now he felt less out of the water than he had before trying to figure out Stark's interest and why he hadn't left yet.

"Physiology. Aesir and Jotnar, both heal at an accelerated rate compared to Midgardians that has to do with the fact that our metabolisms work faster than a normal Midgardians. Which is why we must eat more than Midgardians. It is also why we are denser and things take more force to pierce our skin." Loki paused and wondered if he should have told that to Stark who could possibly use that against him in the future. It seemed like a moronic idea in hindsight, then again Stark wasn't attacking him, now... but that was perhaps only because he knew that Thor was in the other room. That Thor would be back at any moment and wouldn't react well if Stark tried to do away with him.

He hissed as something cold was put on his back without warning and his eyes narrowed into slits- only to relax a bit as he felt the cooling relief.

"We may not have the Casket of Ancient Winters but we do have ice," Thor said happily. It was only because the cooling sensation was so heavenly that Loki did not respond and tell him that he could have used some warning.

After a few minutes, he heard Stark say.

"I'm guessing that being a frost giant means you don't have have to worry about giving it rest?" He looked at Thor who was looking at his back.

"What is it? What going on?" Loki asked but still didn't want to twist his back to see himself.

"Your back is turning slowly blue and it seems to be accelerating the healing process. " He looked over his shoulder as much as he could without arching his back but it was still the same color, then again Thor had specified that it was slowly turning color and it might take a little longer before he could see the effects on it. However, if what Thor was saying was true then there was the only course of action.

"Thor, get more ice." He heard hurried footsteps and he looked up to see Tony still looking at his looked at his shoulder again and saw the blue slowly creeping down his shoulder. In the beginning, his transformation had bothered him but now less so...in fact. He focused and let the blue wash around his body slowly. He opened his eyes to see the blue creeping down his arms and stomach.

"Well then it was rather unnecessary for me to get this then," his brother said slightly irritated as he put a bag of ice down on the nearest piece of furniture. The Trickster moved his body slightly towards his brother to see how much pain he was still in and found a dull ache when he moved but it was much better than the searing pain before.

"I suppose so," he said before looking down at his now completely blue body, well except for his eyes but he couldn't see his own eyes without looking in some sort of reflective surface.

"So….what is this? How…" Tony left the question hanging. Loki looked back and remembered that Tony had seen this form before granted it had been during quite a turbulent time as The Hulk had been there. It was much less turbulent now.

Loki frowned as he looked at the man who seemed to be very focused on the color of his skin. Granted a quick look at his brother showed that he too was concentrated on his blue form. Thor was not quite used to his Jotun form even if he had been exposed to it a few times since his visit had commenced. Stark was a Midgardian and probably hadn't seen much in the way of life that looked vastly different from himself...other than The Chitauri he supposed. Still, he would have assumed that Thor would have told them what he was they were his friends. He looked to Thor and flicked his eyes back to Stark questioningly. In response, Thor's eyes dropped down to the floor.

"I told them of your adoption, I never told them that…" he trailed off. His blood spiked and he was suddenly full of anger. He clenched his fists and shouted.

"That what! I'm a Jotun!" He barked then took in a long calming breath. He knew being a Jotun used to be a difficult subject for him. He used to deny it even after Thor had embraced it. They had been raised to hate the Jotuns. Parents told tales of them at night. It was likely his other self felt the same way. It was likely that Thor was trying to protect him even if the Midgardian probably had no idea what frost giants were anymore. His brother likely hadn't meant to harm anyone, Thor rarely did, even before he had changed his insults had been unintentional, just Thor being dense and rather unthinking rather than said with any true malice.

"I'm sorry," Thor said apologetically voice filled with shame and regret. Loki sighed, it was nearly impossible to be angry at him like this.

"It's alright Thor," he said tiredly no longer wanting to argue about it. He sat down on the couch that he had previously been lying on and looked out the window. The view still amazed him slightly and he had been there for nearly a week at this point and seen many fantastical things. The sightseeing would ebb off if the meeting tomorrow went well and most of their attention would be focused on his counterpart. Another reason he didn't want to keep arguing with Thor. He tried to relax back into the couch but the muscles in his back wouldn't relax and everything else was still a bit too rigid as well.

"I'm sorry," he heard his brother smaller and more pitiful than his usual boisterous voice tell him again before he heard footsteps going away. He couldn't figure out how to feel as moments after his brother had left the room his back started to relax again, making some of the pain go away.

"Do you need anything?" Well- except he suddenly remembered that Stark was in the room when his voice hesitantly came out. Loki frowned into the couch as the frown stayed as he lifted up his head. Stark looked painfully awkwardly at him, and silence hung in the air between them as Loki tried to figure out why the Midgardian was looking at him like that. He didn't look angry, just anxious and unsure of himself. Why would the man who hated him ask if he needed anything? It didn't make any sense. After a long moment of more of the uncomfortable silence the Midgardian sighed.

"Look I know I've been kind of asshole ever since you've shown up, but you gotta understand I...thought you tried to kill me, and rule my planet. Plus destroyed my whole damn tower." Loki opened his mouth to argue yet again, when he realized what Stark had actually said. Thought, he had said thought.

"And now?" he said slowly and with the least amount of emotion he could.

"And now...there might be a slight possibility that you're not the lying psychopath I thought you were." the man said with a shrug. Loki eyed the man doubtfully as he straightened his back slightly so he could get a better look at his face as he was slightly off to the side. The man rolled his eyes but moved closer to him so he could see him without straining his back. He appeared more defiant, though.

"I'm not saying it again," he said adamantly crossed his arms. Loki nodded after a minute, even as his mind raced to try to comprehend this sudden change in the Midgardian. Before he could fully wrap his mind around it Stark asked.

"So we're done with this?" Loki blinked, after a moment's consideration he replied.

"I believe so."

"Cool. Now that we're friends and all there some things I got to pick your brain about since you're the second alien I've ever really met and I have a feeling you might know the answers better than your brother," Loki's eyes widened slightly at the abrupt change of subject and the nonchalance behind it but again acquiesced.

* * *

Thor was sure now that he had given his brother sufficient time to cool down now and was making his back to him. However, when he got to the room his brother had been lying down in he came upon an unoccupied couch. Fear gripped him tightly clawing its way through his insides. Where was his brother? Why he not where he left him?

He tried to calm himself down, after all, it had been hours since he had last seen him. Perhaps he had simply retired to his bedroom. It would, after all, be a more comfortable resting place if there was still healing to be had. He made his way speedily to his brother's temporary room in the tower, only to find that too empty. That's when the fear increased thrice fold.

"Loki! Loki!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. He can't have lost his brother. He had only had him back for a little more than a week. He was still supposed to have another week with him before he would leave. There was still supposed to be time. Who would do this? Tony? He remembered something before he could work himself up too far.

"Jarvis, where is my brother?

"He's in sir's lab," the AI voice told him. Thor frowned, what was his brother doing in Tony's lab? Was Tony running experiments on him? He didn't want to think so, he had always assumed that while Tony may not believe or like his brother that he had respected and liked Thor well enough to endure his presence for a short time in his tower. Especially since the both of the had been gone most of the day since they had gotten there. He tried to clamp own on the anxiety and anger rising in him at the thought as he stalked up to Tony's lab. He stopped before the door and took tried to take a deep calming breath but aborted it quickly and walked through the door.

Neither Loki or Tony seemed to notice his presence. What was even more startling was that not only was Loki held captive he seemed to deep in conversation with Stark as they looked down at something. Their tone seemed mostly amicable though also more than a bit sarcastic.

"You do remember I grew up in Asgard correct?"

"How could I forget, when you've brought it up a dozen times since we've come up here," Tony snarked right back.

One the one hand he was relieved his brother wasn't being subjected to experiments and that Tony hadn't betrayed him. On the other, he was at the loss with what to do with the scene in front of him. It appeared that Tony and Loki...were actually getting along. He hadn't expected that. At one point he probably believed he had wanted it but seeing it in front of him...that was different. He felt something pass over him that he couldn't put words to. Loki was his brother. HIS brother and he only had about one more week with him before he went away. His brother was spending what little time they had getting to know and joking around with Stark rather than himself, which for some reason did not sit well with him. Thor found himself withdrawing from the room and turning away to try to understand and overcome the feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think


End file.
